ICC Honcho !

C. Rajshekhar Rao, Batch of ’87, is a Senior Leader at International Cricket CounciI (ICC HQ , Dubai) and a media professional. He has authored & published five books including one based on characters of his chums from Air Force Bal Bharati School.

Rajshekhar studied commerce in high school and was part of the volleyball team that won inter-school zonal competitions three years on the trot – sub-juniors (1985), juniors (1986) and seniors (1987). He was earlier part of the sub-junior cricket team, which used to train at the National Stadium at the time.

Rajshekhar’s novel “The Middle Aged Teenagers’ has a strong connect with AFBBS since its main characters are his close friends from school and includes several anecdotes from there. It is a fast-paced story that mixes fact and fiction, starting from their times in school and a tour of Goa immediately afterwards, and climaxes dramatically in another trip there 23 years later.

The story, which has a solid story line and characters that Indian readers will relate to, has a subtle but strong message for readers – that they can pursue their desires, which are often not very difficult to achieve.

Rajshekhar had earlier written a book titled “India Beckons and Other Stories,” which was critically acclaimed, while his other three books have been biographies of Indian cricketers MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh.

Rajshekhar manages Media and Communications for the International Cricket Council at their headquarters in Dubai and is part of the core team that organises top cricket events around the world including the men’s and women’s World Cups. He is a member of the newly formed Dubai Chapter of our OSA.

Rajshekhar crossed the fence from mainstream media in 2016 after writing for the world’s top news agencies like The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, as well as reputed Indian publications like The Hindu, Indian Express and The Sportstar magazine. He has reported on sports events in different parts of the world.

He was a regular in panel discussions on radio and television during his time as a journalist.

Rajshekhar was also active in media circles as Secretary of the Delhi Sports Journalists’ Association and Joint Secretary of the Sports Journalists’ Federation of India.He is a graduate in commerce from Delhi University and has a degree in law (LLB) apart from PG diplomas and certification courses in journalism, media and communication.

His sister C.Pallavi Rao, a renowned radio personality associated with Radio Mirchi since its launch in 2002, was two years his junior in school.

Link to an interview in The Hindu on “The Middle-Aged Teenagers” is available here. The “Middle-Aged Teenagers” is available on Amazon here.

Kudos !