Ravi Sehgal – The UNSUNG HERO for Cricket Heroines
Thailand, a country of 70 million where Bangkok City Cricket Club, the 1st Cricket Club was established in 1890 by elite Thai families whose children came in touch with Cricket while studying in England.
However only in 1971 Thailand Cricket League, the 1st structured Cricket started. In 1995 TCL became Affiliate Member of ICC – International Cricket Council but interestingly after nearly 10 years, in 2004 Sport Authority of Thailand renamed the TCL to CAT – Cricket Association of Thailand.
Cricket was not a popular sports in Thailand in comparison to Football, Thai Boxing (Muay Thai) or Badminton etc. but a Thai citizen of Indian origin Ravi Sehgal, then near 29 years, an upcoming entrepreneur and a passionate sports person, with various accolades in various sports including representing Thai National team in Hockey and Cricket; as a helmsman took CAT to a new horizon by achieving ICC Associate membership in 2005.
Thailand is one of the few countries in the world where in Male-Female gender ratio, male is slightly lower than female in the country and visionary Ravi Sehgal, just 2 years after gaining ICC – Associate membership, made CAT to launch its Women’s team to play the first 2 International games against Bangladesh Women’s team in July 2007.
A great stepping stone in global women’s cricket when most of the global ICC Associate members not even thought of starting structured women cricket domestically and internationally.
Most importantly, we must remember that IWCC – International Women Cricket Council was an independent global governing body for nearly 50 years but merged with ICC – International Cricket Council when it took over the responsibility of IWCC in 2005, the very year CAT - Cricket Association of Thailand earned its Associate membership from ICC.
The magic wand in Ravi Segal’s hand is called REP – Rigorous Execution of Planning under his leadership by an extremely competent team.
In just 15 years Thailand presented the Cricket World from nothing in grass-root to a World Class “women cricket development machineries”, a complete production from human-raw-material to super-fine finished products. Honestly this has been a dream journey of continuity to see spirited female Thai Children gradually shaping up with joy but disciplined program under Visionary Ravi Sehgal.
Passion and Dedication are two vital points for any successful project-triangle but along with these two, most critical juncture is always Administration Prowess. Ravi Sehgal proved that Final Results of the project outcome can create thundering impacts of satisfaction but no scope of complacency.
Rewards of Low-Profiled silence exertions are always louder than high-profiled crumbling adventures. Ravi Sehgal is the living example of this amplitude, totally low profile and lets the achievements be high for the topics of global banner.
The accomplishments of Ravi Sehgal in Cricket passion, dedication and administration are immeasurable but some are absolute triumphant and unimaginable for many, like;
1) In May 2022, Thailand women earned hard fought ICC ODI status.
2) Present ICC ODI ranking of Thailand women team is 8th out of 17 ODI status members, where 12 are full members.
3) Present ICC T20I ranking of Thai women team is 12 out of 106 ICC members.
4) As a global example of true Cricket development among 96 Cricket Developing countries, Thailand female teams from U16 to U19 to Senior National team all are indigenous, ethnic Thai nationals. This is one of the rarest of the rare achievements by CAT management under Ravi Sehgal.
Ravi Sehgal is also one of the Executive Board members of ACC – Asian Cricket Council and its congenial African counterpart ACA – Africa Cricket Association draws encouragement from Thailand women cricket development.
Rwanda U19 women team probably the unique and latest example from ICC associates of African continent, not just cricket only, for their winning against ICC U19 full member countries twice in recent U19 ICC world cup but also focused as a team for the future of Africa women Cricket development, falls in the line of Ravi Sehgal’s success story in Thailand.
Please enjoy the unbelievable Short-Video of Thai woman player Nathakan Chantham, an authentic display of peak standard of one of Thai Heroines under the leadership of Unsung Hero Ravi Sehgal.