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Cricket academy by September, says BCCI

The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced that a national cricket academy will be set up by September-October.

Board secretary Jaywant Lele said that former Test stars players Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Brijesh Patel will be on the committee overseeing the proposed academy.

The decision was taken at a BCCI meeting in Calcutta attended by president Raj Singh Dungarpur, Mumbai Cricket Association joint-secretary Prof. Ratnakar Shetty, Vidarbha Cricket Association representative Shashank Panwar, CAB president Jagmohan Dalmiya and Lele himself.

The three Test stars did not attend the meeting. Gavaskar is down with fever, Kapil Dev is in Nepal and Patel is in England, as administrative manager of the Indian cricket team.

Shetty told Rediff that the idea of setting up an academy had been floated three years ago, but for one reason or other, it hadn't taken off in all this time.

A corpus of Rs 30 million has been allotted for the proposed academy, which will be a full-fledged residential institution with school, swimming pool, gymnasium and all other facilities, besides standard cricket facilities.

Sports Authority of India officials will be approached for help in matters like sports medicine and other fitness-related subjects.

Based on the Australian cricket academy model, the plan is for 20 boys, around 15-16 years old, to be selected and groomed in the academy.

The academy will be sited on a plot of land in Bandra, Bombay. The plot had been given to Gavaskar by the Maharashtra government some years ago.

However, there are some legal complications that could still prevent the academy from taking off, at least at the venue now proposed. BCCI officials said they are working on the paperwork needed to get the project off the ground on deadline.