Shyam Bhatia and his charity “Cricket for Care” has been a partner of the Japan Cricket Association for several years and continues to supply equipment the length and breadth of Japan.

The partnership came into existence after the Great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011 and has helped introduce cricket to several areas. Easily recognisable by its bright orange colour, a large number of juniors and adults have had their first experience of cricket thanks to Shyam’s generosity.

The philosophy of “Cricket for Care” is not only to spread cricket more globally and help children develop physically, but to use the sport as a tool for building characters and create stronger people who can communicate and lead.

Thanks to the partnership, Cricket has been introduced to many schools, especially in Miyagi and Iwate Prefecture, while strongly encouraging girls in Sendai University to not just play the game but also to learn many life skills through the sport.

The “Cricket for Care” philosophy has not just been seen in the place where the partnership began. We recently reported on the activities being run in Hiroshima where a local high school has used cricket for exactly this purpose. More than 500 school children were introduced to the sport just in this school in 2018.

Likewise, the Lifetime Sports Association in Mie Prefecture has taken up Cricket by reading through our resources on the junior cricket website and making use of the equipment offered. The organisation ran a seven-team cup competition last year, another excellent example of committed volunteers taking cricket to a new audience.

It is not just junior players who have benefited from the colourful kit however, the Sano Social League has often made use of both the orange plastic bats as well as the recently sent wooden bats which are perfect for beginners.

Stories such as these would not be possible without our committed partners and we remain extremely grateful to Shyam and 

his team at Cricket for Care for their continued support. It is likely that if you are involved in cricket in Japan in any way at all you have likely used or seen something provided by Shyam Bhatia, and that is an excellent legacy.