His passion and undeniable relentless contribution to Botswana cricket is what makes Girish Ramakrishna, the Botswana Cricket Association (BCA) treasurer of more than 5 years, a formidable force to reckon with.
Last year, the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) recognized his efforts in bringing cricket to Batswana and handed him the sought after award for non-citizen contribution to sport.
During the same year, he received the International Cricket Council (ICC) award for Regional volunteer for the whole of Africa.
A chartered accountant by profession, Ramakrishna is the director of a highly successful company called Grant Thornton International Ltd, which has offices in Gaborone, Selibe-Phikwe and Francistown.
Ramakrishna, who was born in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, grew up playing cricket but didn’t have a chance to pursue it professionally due to heavy competition.
He believes that Botswana, unlike his native India, has a very low population and therefore the children have a better shot at realizing their potentials than in India. He thus wants to grant the children a chance he never had, especially those in government schools.
“Every kid is the same; regardless of their background, the kids need to be presented with opportunities so that they could make something of themselves,” says Ramakrishna.
The Grant Thornton director is the mastermind behind the implementation of the cricket development plan.
This is where kids from different government schools are sponsored to play cricket as a sport amongst themselves and represent Botswana when competing with outside teams.
The idea of the development team only started coming into practice in February of 2007.
Ramakrishna holds a degree in commerce and has been a lecturer at the Institute of Bankers for 8 years after he moved into the country in August 1994.
Ramakrishna’s idea for the development plan was inspired by his belief that everything that is to succeed has to be empowered from scratch.
He believes that the idea of the development will help the kids become more familiar with the sport to the extent that when they are older they will be more experienced and professional.
“Lets not rely on the government all the time, anyone in a society can carry out a social project that is of positive influence to others, the development team is one such example by the BCA,” says Ramakrishna.
He claims that his most important goal is to popularize the game as is also the motto of the BCA logo which reads: `Bringing cricket to the nation`.
