By Paulo Vítor Campo, Mantiqueira Newspaper, Poços de Caldas

Poços de Caldas, MG – A cricket tournament was held last Wednesday involving five projects in the city, all coordinated by Professor Matt Featherstone. The competition was held at Sesi, in the south area of ​​the city, and had a large participation of students. The champion project was “Crescendo Fraternidade”, second place was “Sesi A”, third place “Galpão das Artes”, fourth place “Sesi B” and fifth place “Bem Viver”. “This championship was a great success and the boys were very motivated during the matches,” said Featherstone. “My joy is to see that this project in Poços de Caldas improves every year and the level of our players are excellent, which makes Poços a great force in the sport”, he adds.

Participation

Mantiqueira was present at the event and found a large participation of students. Each had a game strategy to make their team leave the winning court. The sporting spirit and the unity between the teams were also great differential. In this selective tournament the athletes played with a lighter ball than the traditional one, used in the official competition of the city.

Selection

According to Professor Featherstone, the tournament serves as a qualifier for the Municipal Cricket Championship, which is played every month at the Benedito Bandola de Oliveira stadium. “From here we were able to get boys and girls of great potential, who help to form teams for competitions in competitions outside of Poços and even outside of Brazil,” he said.

Projects
About 1,200 children practice cricket in Poços de Caldas. Among the 21 projects in the city are Casa do Menor, Fazenda Lambari, two in the neighborhood São José, Sesi, Caldense (which provides space for training), Jardim Kennedy, Galpão das Artes, Colégio Municipal and AADV.

The projects are coordinated by professors Matt Featherstone, Alexandre Felippe and Richard Avery. “We thank the support of the Sports Department of Poços de Caldas, which gave us the field for the game in these two weekends”. According to the professor, there are great chances that this year the projects in the city will be doubled. “I really need to thank other important partners, such as DME, Construtora Passo and Pamafer. These are companies that have embraced cricket and are giving us full conditions to go in search of making this sport even stronger in the city ”, finished Matt Featherstone.