Farewell to Aditya Sen – UF Gator Club President Extraordinaire
Aditya’s UF Gators team.
by Siddesh Kulasekaran
The Gator Cricket Club hails from a university rich for its sporting histories and heritages, The University of Florida. A place that has nurtured national heroes and legends is now turning its head towards a sport that is new to America but has its own legacies in other parts of the world. Gator Cricket has been making enormous progress in terms of popularizing and developing the sport of cricket in their university as well as the city they hail from. As part of American College Cricket’s efforts to popularize the sport in USA & Canada, they have managed to gather attention from people who were previously unaware of the sport.
Aditya Sen, the President & Captain of Gator Cricket (2017-18) put in tremendous effort and initiative to work for the development of the sport at the University of Florida and eventually in the US, driven by his “passion and love for cricket”. As a result of his efforts the club may access to Batting cages. Most importantly he has made the club a leader in the American College Cricket social media strategy, motivating the players to execute on Facebook, and starting a Gator Cricket Instagram account. Increasing Home & Away activity resulted in a number of Gator Cricket players being selected as “Club Athlete of the Week” at UF, which in turn increases the profile of the game on campus.
Aditya commentating on the SONY telecast with David Sentance
Aditya himself has been a top bowler evidenced by his selection for the American College Cricket USA team which played vs Canadian College Cricket in Jan 2018, and being named as a ‘College Player of the Year 2017’.
Mr. Lloyd Jodah the founder and President of American college cricket has been the most instrumental person for the game to grow in the US and be where it is now. He has supported the Gators and has played a very important part in motivating the club to do better. His idea to use social media platform to popularize the sport and giving incentives to people helping to popularize the sport has found tremendous success. Aditya Sen’s joint efforts with Mr. Jodah has seen RecSports in University of Florida considering Cricket as one of its major sports. This was evident from the fact that the first ever intramural cricket tournament was conducted late last year. The club is also taking efforts to get a proper pitch to make home games on campus a reality. Aditya Sen along with Dr. Hill (the Faculty Advisor for the club) have been trying to persuade the university to provide funds for the club to get better facilities. Dr. Hill, a professor at the university, purely from his love for the game and the members of the club, travels with the Gators for all the matches and is a pillar that the Gator Cricket relies on. He has been the Adviser of the club for 8 years now and has provided valuable insights for the team and the individuals to improve.
Aditya, playing for the ACC USA team
Many people have mailed and messaged the Club asking about Cricket. In the past year the club has grown to over 35 members. The club has been a platform that Aditya has used to spread the sport he loves. As he graduates this semester, Gator Cricket and American College Cricket will miss his services although we’re confident he’ll continue supporting the club as an alumni.
Though the legacy Aditya is leaving behind is a tough one to uphold, he has entrusted others to carry forward. Aditya Sen stated that this experience as Club President has helped him develop more as an individual and grow as a leader. Now he is ready to pass the baton to myself, Siddarth Kulasekarran, a Graduate Student and Saroop Sandhu, a PhD student to take care of the club and continue the upward growth of the club.. He believes they’ll devote time for the club and work towards the growth of the club and the sport in the country. The future of GCC is going to be exciting and a memorable one that demands to be followed closely.
American College Cricket Founder and President Lloyd Jodah said, ‘Aditya has been one of our top Club Presidents this year and his leadership of his club has been great. He made the club one of our top 2 strongest in executing our Social Media strategies, so it’s no surprise there has been a significant increase in club members. Additionally at this year’s National Championship Aditya volunteered and provided very valuable assistance with our SONY television broadcast, including commentary. We’ll miss him but I’m confident he’s passed some good lessons to the club executives following him.’
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Edited by Lloyd Jodah
