Tri-Valley teen qualifies for USA Cricket national women’s team

A prospect from Cricket for Cubs and the San Ramon Cricket Association has made national headlines, and has her eye on international acclaim, after being named to the USA Cricket national women’s team.

A Dougherty Valley High School student, the 14-year-old San Ramon resident Geetika Kodali — who is one of the youngest members on Team USA — is currently training in anticipation of the International Cricket Council’s Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier Americas, scheduled to be played May 17-19 in Lauderhill, Fla.

“We have a busy two months approaching where we will be doing everything in our power to prepare in the best possible manner to leave everything out on the field in Florida,” said Julia Price, USA Cricket Women’s new Head Coach.

In the Florida tournament, Team USA will play three matches against Team Canada, with the winner moving on to the Women’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier scheduled to be held this summer in Scotland.

Prior to leaving for training in Florida, Geetika’s father, Prashant, said that she is excited for the competition and her family is “overjoyed” to watch her succeed so much at such a young age.

“Their hard work brought their dreams to life,” Prashant told the Weekly. “Geetika has been training (for the) last four years on Cricket. She is an enthusiastic sports player who started at a young age with soccer and then got into basketball, volleyball, tennis and swimming. When she got to playing cricket, for some reason she just loved it and stuck to learning all aspects of it.”

Parshant explained that Geetika was first recognized for her talent when she qualified for the USA Combines selections, and went through a four day assessment program that tested her skills in summer 2018.

She was then among 34 athletes invited by the USA Cricket Women’s Selection Panel to the women’s training camp in Florida on Feb. 1, 2019.

“Invited players demonstrated their skills, fitness and commitment to the selection process and following the camp, 18 players were chosen. Geetika made it and we were very excited she made it at a young age,” Parshant said.

Following final selection of the 14 woman team, athletes were invited to a training camp held April 10-16 in Florida, in anticipation of the competition.

“Thanks to the dedication of the local schools (Dougherty Valley High School), (Windemere Ranch Middle School), local cricket clubs San Ramon Cricket Association, Dublin Cricket League and tireless efforts of coaches Clint Copeland, Dashrath Sänkhe, Nick (Fitness19), Geetika developed her passion and excelled in Cricket,” Prashant added.