When Ayush Mhatre arrived at the Singapore Cricket Club on June 12 for the launch of a new Chennai Super Kings (CSK)-branded cricket academy, he had already led India to victory at the Under-19 Men’s World Cup.
He answered questions from junior cricketers with the same economy he brings to his batting, spoke about watching YouTube videos of opponents the night before a match, and stayed well after the formalities ended to sign bats for a line of children the academy is designed to serve.
At 19, Mhatre is not far removed from being one of them. His idol is Rohit Sharma, whose relentless appetite for runs and unwavering commitment to his pre-match routines have long inspired the youngster. “He has a madness for the game,” Mhatre said.
Reflecting on his interactions with the former Indian captain, Mhatre revealed that he spent a long afternoon at his residence before taking on the World Cup fixtures, soaking up as much advice and insight as he could.
He was five years old when his father gave him a bat, less out of cricketing ambition, Mhatre said, than a desire to keep the boy outdoors and away from a screen. Now he is playing alongside the greatly venerated M.S. Dhoni at CSK.
Even then, he playfully admitted, his brother holds on to his phone to keep distractions at bay.
The SCC Super Kings Academy, a formal partnership between the Singapore Cricket Club and Super Kings Academy – the official development arm of CSK – represents the most ambitious push the 140-year-old club has made to develop the sport beyond its own membership.
For those who run the game in Singapore, the partnership signals a new model for how cricket grows in countries where the sport has always competed for space and resources against better-funded rivals.
The partnership was announced at the Singapore Cricket Club at the Padang, the colonial-era ground that has hosted Singapore cricket for more than a century.
Mr Imran Khwaja, deputy chairman of the International Cricket Council and a member of the club, invoked that history in his remarks. The SCC had been, in his estimation, “the main engine for the growth of cricket in Singapore”, building the governance structures that sustain the sport in the country.
The conventional approach to cricket development, Mr Khwaja said, has international governing bodies channelling funds to national associations and hoping for results. “That model, in my view, does not work,” he said.
What the SCC and Super Kings Academy have done instead is to match the club with established, credible partners and a world-class institution to build a joint programme on the ground. Mr Khwaja said he plans to present the model to cricket stakeholders in China next month.
The SCC Cricket Academy, which has operated since 2022, already functions as Singapore’s primary feeder structure for the national game.
It serves 360 junior cricketers across three tiers – Foundation, Development and Elite – and more than 75 per cent of its graduates have gone on to represent Singapore in national or development squads.
Super Kings Academy, launched the same year, brings international reach. It operates more than 45 centres across India, the United States, Australia and Canada, with Singapore being its latest addition.
As the club’s Games Control Board chairman Srikanth Kakulapati puts it: “For young players in SCC, this is what this partnership means for you – better coaching, clear pathways, more opportunities beyond Singapore. And most importantly, the right environment to grow, not just as cricketers but as individuals. In SCC, we always believe that sport is about character as much as about performance.”
