Cricket coach hoping to bring award back to Birmingham
A POPULAR women’s cricket coach from Birmingham is hoping to pick up another prestigious British Asian Sports Award this March.
Salma Bi, 24, has been nominated for the Coach of the Year category, for her outstanding contribution to cricket in 2010. She will find out if she is a winner on Saturday 5th March 2011 when the annual British Asian Sports Awards (BASA) celebrate a decade with a glittering ceremony, at The Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London.
Salma is the only Asian female coach in the UK at level 2+ and last year’s winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award. She was the only Asian female to play in Men’s Club Side and has recently joined the Umpires Association in the hope of umpiring at international matches.
Salma has been working with local leagues to coach at schools in the Asian Community and hopes to open her own coaching academy in the future.
BASAs panel of expert judges, who include former England cricketer Mark Ramprakash, Olympic Gold medallist, Denise Lewis (OBE) and BBC’s Football League Show presenter, Manish Bhasin, saw Salma’s potential as a future star and shortlisted her from over 100 nominations.
On finding out she had made it on to the shortlist, Salma said: “I love coaching cricket and it can’t get any better than being up for an award for my passion. Huge stars like Amir Khan and Isa Guha have been nominated and won, to just be alongside them is a huge honour.”
The public will be able to vote for their favourites to win in each category, when voting lines open in the first week of February. To cast their vote, they must pick up the phone or text Salma’s dedicated number, which will be made available via www.basauk.tv
Salma added: “I won last year and it was an absolute dream come true! I hope that people will help me live my dream and vote for me once again. Winning the award last year changed my life, I’ve done so much this past year, working with Chance 2 Shine, Warwickshire County Cricket Club and other local projects, I want to continue and go further.”
Salma is up against some healthy competition in the Coach of the Year category with Leicester’s former England hockey star and coach Bobby Bhogal and martial arts coach Hashmat Faqiri from Preston also in the running for the esteemed accolade. The full shortlist can be found online at www.basauk.tv
