{"id":6888,"date":"2026-02-16T13:58:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T17:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/?p=6888"},"modified":"2026-02-16T21:18:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T01:18:00","slug":"dr-kumar-balakrishnan-nominated-to-class-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/2026\/02\/16\/dr-kumar-balakrishnan-nominated-to-class-of-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Kumar Balakrishnan NOMINATED TO CLASS OF 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_d4_element et_pb_section et_pb_section_0  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode et_section_regular et_block_section\" >\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"et_d4_element et_pb_row et_pb_row_0  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode et_block_row\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"et_d4_element et_pb_column_4_4 et_pb_column et_pb_column_0  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode et-last-child et_block_column\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"et_pb_module et_d4_element et_pb_text et_pb_text_0  et_pb_text_align_left et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\"><p><strong>Kumar Balakrishnan was born in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon. Like so many children in the parts of the world colonised by the British, he began playing cricket at the elementary school level. He and his friends used tennis balls and other makeshift equipment, playing on any open space available, including roads. Inspired by the Test Cricket and One-Day matches between Australia and England, he played and practiced as often as he\u00a0could. At age 13 he played U-15 cricket for his school, Methodist Central College, founded\u00a0in 1814 by the British, and in his second year was made captain of his team. At Jaffna Hindu college, a boarding school, Balakrishnan played for the school\u2019s varsity cricket team as an all-rounder for a period of five years.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>At twenty, Kumar Balakrishnan entered medical school at the University of Ceylon.\u00a0 In his fourth\u00a0year, he was made captain of the university\u2019s cricket team. He continued playing regularly during his internship, so much so that he was known as Mr. Cricketer.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. (now his professional title) Balakrishnan migrated to New York city in June 1970. He found no organized cricket until 1978, when he discovered the Staten Island Cricket Club (SICC). He became a regular player, known for his stylish batting and tidy bowling. In about\u00a01990, he joined SICC\u2019s Executive Committee, on which he has served ever since.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr Bala (as he is known to all) is responsible for inspiring and launching SICC\u2019s Youth Cricket Program in 2010. He had long observed the lack of opportunities for youngsters to play cricket in New York, and was determined to make a difference. Thanks in large part to his efforts and his vision, the SICC Youth Program has flourished for years and is now stronger than ever.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>For his long and significant service to cricket in New York, and for his contributions to passing the game on to future generations, Dr. Kumar Balakrishnan is a worthy inductee into the Cricket Hall of Fame.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inductees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6888"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6922,"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6888\/revisions\/6922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crickethofmuseum.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}