OCA&C star player Nikhil Dutta has left for Barbados to take one step closer to his goals of playing full fledged professional cricket. He was selected amongst a group of Canadian, Americans and Bermudans as part of an ICC/WICB initiative to provide an outlet for top level players in these countries to earn contracts in the West Indies professional franchise cricket structure.

This will not be Nikhil's first time in West Indies as he has played there on numerous occasions, and most notably when he was called to the West Indies Cricket High Performance coaching academy in Barbados where legendary spinner Saqlain Mushtaq reunited with the youngster in 2013. Saqlain first spotted Nik's incredible talent in Sussex (UK) whilst Nik was being scouted by county coaches.

Nikhil has been earning the praise of top coaches and players around the world- including current England batting coach and former Test player, Mark Ramprakash, who spotted Nik in India and promptly as him to come an bowl to the England team in the nets. Ramprakash quickly scooped Nik up to play for his club Stanmore in the Middlesex Premier League.

Nik is currently in the Canadian senior team set to travel to South Africa to help the team qualify for the World Cup. Not bad for a globe trotting 20 year old! We are proud to say that Nikhil started his cricket at the OCA&C in 2003 and continues to play for his home club!