Academy Coaches

Sukita Harambage

Sukita has an extensive history of playing Division 1 cricket with Singa Kyoto in Japan opening the batting for the team before he moved to the US and started playing and practicing with the Chicago Panthers. He has also started as a batsman and spinner for the Kings XI Chicago and United Elgins at the Midwest Cricket Conference, for the Incredibles opening the bowling in the Bolingbrook Premier League and, of course, opening the batting for the Chicago Panthers in the CASO Cricket League. He has also been building the grounds in Osaka, where he lived most of his life and now in Chicago at BPL and other places. Sukii is a Level 2 ACF Coach.

Sami Sohail

Sami started his international cricket career as in the Malawi National team at the age of 16 in 2019 and got to captain the U19 team the following year. Sami has emerged as the top African cricketer in recent times when his average of 72.5 run was higher than that of Pakisthan’s Mohammad Rizwan and the Indian superstar Virat Kohli. He played in the ECB premier league in Derbyshire for Eckington Cricket club as an overseas pro in 2023 with 593 run and 27 wickets for the season. He moved to the US to play with the Chicago Tigers. Sami is also a certified strength and conditioning trainer and ECB Level 2 coach.

Lean more about Sami Sohail:
Sami’s average better than Kohli

Javid Muhammad

Azeem Ghumman

Azeem captained the Pakistan U19 team to the World Cup finals in 2010 with high-profile players in the team like Babur Azam and Ahmed Shehzad. He has more than 5,500 runs with 10 centuries and 23 fifties in First Class cricket, an amazing 199 runs playing for Hydrabad and captained Pakistan A tour of Sri Lanka. He is a PCB Level 2 Coach and a ECB Level 2 Coach. he has extensive coaching experience in numerous cluns in UK, batting and fielding coach for Singapore National team for 2020 Asia Cup and had been the Director for Kevin Pieterson Cricket Academy in London. Azeem also has a masters in Business Administration from New Buckinghamshire University.

Learn more about Azeem Ghumman:
Azeem’s U19 2010 squad
Azeem on ESPN CricInfo

Arunava (Ron) Majumdar

Ron is a Level 2 ACF Certified Coach. He is passionate about the sport and had been playing all his life at the college level but pursued a career in Computer Science and Leads Center for Advanced Studies (Chicago, Midwest and India) for IBM. Ron is the founder of Chicago Panthers team and the CASO Panthers Academy along with Tariq Khan and Emaad Hussain. Ron is well connected in the cricket circles with academies throughout the US and working with schools in downtown, British International School of Chicago and University of Chicago Lab School to promote cricket curriculum in the US. He also started the first academic tournament in Chicago where University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Wisconsin Madison participated.

Phil Apthorpe

Phil is an energetic Australian cricketer who moved to England and started teaching at the Highgate Cricket Club (HGCC) as the Lead Junior Coach since 2020. He is an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Level 2 Certified coach and had been giving private lessons and running camps for HGCC. He is also the contracted coach for the Middlesex Cricket team working closely with the Director and ECB Advanced Coach, Johan de Silva, to deliver excellence in cricket skills. Phil is a Batsman and Off Spinner and had kept wickets in the past in his earlier days. He will be debuting for the Panthers in 2024 season.

Special Coaches

Fahad Babar

Fahad Babar has been the one player in recent times to challenge Steven Taylor’s mantle as Team USA’s premier batsman, mostly through a consistency of performance.

Since he first broke into the full U.S. lineup in 2014 he has not looked back, topping the teams run scoring charts for the USA in his first two ICC events, and being named as the MVP of the 2015 ICC Americas Division One championship in Indianapolis.

Learn more about Fahad Babar:
Fahad Babar USA Cricket
Fahad Babar on ESPN CricInfo

Zia-ul-Haq

Zia-ul-Haq is a left-arm fast bowler who started his career in the Pakistan U19 cricket team. caught everyone’s attention when he made his domestic T20 debut in early 2012 during Super 8 tournament in Pakistan. He took 5/23 against Faisalabad in a dream spell where he consistently touched the 140 kmph mark. He played for Pakistan T20 International squad for their tour of Sri Lanka in July 2015. In April 2018, he played in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s squad for the Pakistan Cup and was the leading wicket-taker for his team with 11 wickets in 4 matches. In March 2019, he played for Federal Areas for the Pakistan Cup.

Zia moved to the US to play with the Texas Super Kings in 2023 for the MLC tournaments.

Lean more about Zia-ul-Haq:
Zia-ul-Haq on ESPN CricInfo

Ashhar Mehdi

Ashhar started playing cricket as an youngster from the streets of Pakistan and started playing professionally with Rafique Shirazi club in Karachi with Pakistan Test cricket Ghulam Ali. Ashhar was encouraged by Masood Chik after he moved to the US to carry on with his cricketing career in Chicago and he soon became a top batsman and wicket keeping talent in the nation bringing in his experience with players like Rashid Latif while playing in Pakistan. He still hold the record for the fastest 200 runs with 204 in 67 balls.

He started playing for USA national team in 2010 against Jamaica and later that year was announced as the best wicket keeper by ICC at the 6-nation Americas Cup tournament in Bermuda.

Learn more about Ashhar Mehdi:
Ashhar Mehdi on ESPN CricInfo