Good day to you all, I am Nirav Kulkarni and have been playing for VCC for the past few years.
This winter I have had the massive privilege of traveling down to the southern hemisphere to the beautiful city of Cape town in South Africa. Now that I reflect back on the journey I have been through, I am glad to say it has thoroughly been the best part of my life on and off the cricket field. I have had the pleasure of working with extremely knowledgeable and insightful coaches at the Gary Kirsten Cricket academy. The combination of being able to have 1 on 1 sessions as well as team training allowed for me to enhance both technical and strategic aspects of my game.
I also had an invaluable experience of playing for the Western Province Cricket Club for the best part of my trip where rubbing shoulders with some of the most talented and experienced players massively helped me improve all facets of my game. WPCC, quite like VCC, became a true home for me within no time where I could spend most of my days and my most enjoyable evenings. My season at the club admittedly was not as successful as I had hoped for yet the brilliant environment and the people of the club certainly helped me take plenty of learnings from all my games and training. I played many games against some extremely strong oppositions from all over the city for the academy as well as the club which was often challenging but always a great learning opportunity for me.
Having spent countless hours during the nets and having played plenty of games in difficult conditions foreign to those back home in the Netherlands has helped me mature greatly as a cricketer. Outside the 22 yards, it has been an absolute pleasure of mine to have met some of the most wonderful people and those who I am fortunate enough to call mates for the rest of my life.
For the upcoming season I look forward to taking on the field with my friends and bringing my experience and learnings from the summer in South Africa to help VCC achieve yet another successful season.
Cheers,
Nirav
