The new batting mainstay of J&K cricket, Ahmad Omar Banday is all set to play in England for the Manchester-based county club, Bury Cricket Club.
“I have signed for English club, Bury Cricket Club in Manchester League as one of the overseas professional player from April till mid-September,” Banday said.
The Bury club official twitter account also confirmed Banday’s visa issuance update by tweeting, “Omar Banday has collected visa today. We are looking at him flying in for the weekend”.
“It is lower division club but the conditions would be way tougher than what we get in India for batting. I signed for it because it is a very good opportunity for me to improve as a player,” he said.
Banday this season was J&K top run getter in Ranji trophy as he established himself. Coming into limelight last year with a double ton of 214 runs for J&K in Under-23 CK Nayudu trophy, Banday was selected for the Ranji trophy team.
This season Banday went on to score 414 runs for J&K in Ranji Trophy team with the highest score of 102 runs. He emerged as top scorer for J&K Ranji trophy.
He excelled during Vijay Hazare One-Day Trophy as well scoring 274 runs with an average of 54. Soon after that, he became the main player to power J&K Under-23 side into quarterfinal of the U-23 BCCI One Day League where he scored 294 runs in six innings with the average of 49 that included three fifties.
Though he made his Ranji debut last season, he was able to represent J&K in shorter format of 50-overs cricket Vijay Hazare trophy in year 2013 against Delhi. In his debut match he went on to score 50.
It is not first time that Banday would be playing or training outside J&K during off season.
“I usually train at Bangalore in Karnataka Institute of Cricket Bangalore (KIOC) due to lack of proper facilities here in J&K. This time I thought testing my skills and making them better in tougher conditions. I hope I will gain the experience for which I am going in order to help my State,” he added.