Members of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals were in attendance in the final of the 2023 Red Bull Campus Cricket, which was played in Dehradun’s Abhimanyu Cricket Academy on 2 June. The trophy was contested between Delhi’s Al-Falah University and Kolkata’s AJC Bose College, with the former emerging victorious.
On the sidelines of the match, RR’s CEO, Jake Lush McCrum explained the partnership between his franchise and the organising company of the event, Red Bull.
“We think the partnership between Red Bull and Rajasthan Royals is a case study on how to do sports partnerships. Because this is not only about impacting performance in a season, but also about developing players in the off-season and scouting talent. This partnership is also about creating amazing content and pushing boundaries of all sorts,” McCrum mentioned.
Elaborating further on the partnership, McCrum stated that Rajasthan Royals have roped in mental conditioning coaches from Red Bull, alongside also using their grassroots cricketing ventures as a scouting hub.
In the years to come, we want to show how Red Bull is impacting our performance within our team. We have an athlete performance centre in Austria, and brilliant mental performance coaches working with us, whom Red Bull has helped mentor and source for us.Jake Lush McCrum, Rajasthan Royals CEO
Delhi’s Al-Falah University won the final.
(Photo: Red Bull)
Barring campus cricket, wherein budding talents from colleges across the country are showcasing their calibre, a pacer-hunt programme known as the Speedster has also been launched. Speaking about it, McCrum stated “I hope the Speedster programme will help bring many fast bowlers into our set-up in the future, and hopefully, we can have a few Red Bull athletes in Rajasthan Royals.”
“The best thing about this partnership is that we push boundaries with each other, and we have seen dividends of that – whether is it on the content side with amazing jersey launches, on the cricket side with the development of some of our players, or on the broader grassroots development side. With Red Bull Campus Cricket and Speedster, we have impacted thousands of lives already, and hopefully, thousands more to come,” he concluded.
Yuzvendra Chahal, Dhruv Jurel Also Attend Final
Alongside members of the team management, two RR stars in Yuzvendra Chahal and Dhruv Jurel were also present to encourage the finalists, with the latter having played in this competition previously.
Speaking to The Quint, Chahal commented “It has been a good journey for them, they started in 2010 and now it has been thirteen years. The likes of Dhruv Jurel, Ruturaj Gaikwad and KL Rahul. Red Bull and Rajasthan Royals are giving the youngsters a platform, they are coming here and enjoying every bit of this, so it is a good thing.”
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