Two young siblings start a cricket league for migrant workers here

Every Sunday morning, on their way to cricket practice, Neel Ramnarayan, 10, and his seven-year-old brother Jay noticed groups of migrant workers playing cricket on a stretch of open grass outside the United World College (UWC) campus in Tampines.

- Elisha Tushara Correspondent

Under the hot sun, these migrant workers would spend hours bowling and batting amid long blades of grass, and running between stumps kicked into the uneven ground.

"They would play on available open grass plains, but if you bowl on the grass, the ball would bounce very unevenly, or not bounce at all," said Neel.

His brother Jay said: "They never get a chance to play the game properly... And we are able to do that every single day."

When the brothers compared the pristine pitch they used for cricket training at the UWC campus with the bumpy grass areas the migrant workers played on, they felt a need to set things right.

Neel and Jay, who study at the Singapore American School, were introduced to cricket in 2020 by their father, Mr Rajiv Ramnarayan, 43, a business owner in Singapore. Both of their parents are permanent residents, who moved here from India in January 2016.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the boys played mini matches at home with their father, before enrolling in a cricket academy to hone their skills.

Recognising that the migrant workers share a similar love and passion for the sport, the brothers decided to host a one-day cricket tournament at a proper playing facility.

In early 2025, the brothers invited migrant workers at a construction site outside the Singapore American Club to take part in a friendly cricket match the boys were organising.