A cricket player and coach at Rural Development Trust stadium in Anantapur, Veerapala Sankar thanked the organisation in a unique way by scaling Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, on January 24 for taking care of his entire education and honing his skills to become a cricket player.
Hailing from M. Agraharam village in Tadimarri mandal of the district, Mr. Sankar held aloft a photograph of Vincent Ferrer, the founder of the Rural Development Trust on top of Kilimanjaro at 5,895 metres, marching through most inhospitable terrain for eight days, to pay his respect to the organisation that took care of his studies and brought out the latent talent in him.
Not a piece of cake
As part of a 13-member team from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, he took up the expedition without any financial support from the organisation from January 18 to 26. Preparation was no easy task as he had to take a short-duration training at the Bhuvanagiri Rock Climbing Academy in Hyderabad and the 10-day rock climbing course at Sundarnagar in Himachal Pradesh. Only three from their team could make it to the Uhuru point (5,895 metres.), the highest peak on Kilimanjaro, while a girl from Telangana Social Welfare School made it up to the Stella point (5,756 metres.), the rest came up to Gilman Point (5,685 metres.).
A fan of Jagan
A fan of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, he carried a flex banner containing the CM’s photo and got himself photographed with it.
An NIS-certified Cricket coach at the RDT Stadium here, he was a Corporate Cricket League player till last March for three years in Bengaluru. Son of farm hands V. Narsimhulu and Narasamma, he is a science graduate and completed Bachelor of Physical Education before getting trained as coach from the National Institute of Sports.
“I cannot forget what the organisation has done for me,” Mr. Sankar told The Hindu on Wednesday. He hopes the entire world comes to know about the work being done by the RDT in Anantapur and Kurnool districts and supplements their efforts.
RDT programme director Moncho Ferrer was recently given President’s Award for promoting sports in rural areas through the Anantapur Sports Academy.
