da lvbet： Five zonal centres of National Cricket Academy inaugurated
da bet esporte： 01-May-2001In a move to widen the net and nurture young cricketing talent inIndia, the BCCI sponsored National Cricket Academy on Sunday formallystarted its zonal branches in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai andKanpur.NCA sources said 20 players had been picked for each zone – West,North, East, South and Central. In addition, the second batch at theone-year old NCA in Bangalore also commenced training today.The players are aged under 18, and the NCA’s move to expand is seen astraining budding talent in all parts of the country. The immediatetask appears to be to produce a team that can win the Under-19 WorldCup, scheduled to be held in New Zealand next year.”It’s a great honour and I am looking forward to the assignment”, thenew Head Coach of NCA and former India medium pacer, Balwinder SinghSandhu said. The focus would be on fitness and fielding, he hadindicated yesterday.NCA Chairman, Raj Singh Dungarpur, former NCA Director, Hanumant Singhand his successor Brijesh Patel have already held a series of informalmeetings with head coaches and others regarding coaching matters, aswell as uniform pattern and standardisation of training at all theAcademies.Former India stumper Syed Kirmani will be the new head coach of theSouth Zone academy, as the original choice, K Srikkanth, reportedlyexpressed his inability to take the job due to prior commitments.The other head coaches are: Yashpal Sharma (North), Arun Lal (East),Nari Contractor (West) and Kailash Ghattani (Central).The Chairman of the National Cricket Academy Committee, Raj SinghDungarpur, who inaugurated the West Zone Cricket Academy (WZCA) at theWankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday said he was confident ofproducing quality players from the present batch.Dungarpur told PTI that the boys in the Academy were really talentedand it was the coaches’ job to tap them. The immediate aim of theAcademy would be to prepare the boys with the Under-19 World Cup inNew Zealand in mind.”In fact, I spoke to the Board president, Dr A C Muthiah, yesterdayand requested him to send the Under-19 squad at least fifteen daysbefore the World Cup starts and the president responded verypositively”, he added.”I was in Bangalore yesterday and had a very long chat with the Indianjunior team coach and former Test allrounder Roger Binny, who too feltthat the junior squad should be sent to New Zealand well in advance sothat the players could get acclimatised to the weather and nature ofthe wickets over there”, Dungarpur added.”Former Test stars Nari Contractor, Hemant Kanitkar, Kiran More andLalchand Rajput are the four coaches while Vaibhav Daga is thephysiotherapist cum trainer”, Dungarpur said.”We have also appointed Dr S H Marathe as the nutrition expert andAnil Joshi as yoga trainer”, the former Board president said. TheGarware Club House has extended the facility to use the swimming pool,rooms and health club to the trainees.The list of 20 trainees: Parthiv Patel, Swapnil Patel, SiddharthTrivedi and Timil Patel (Gujarat), Vimal Joshi, Yusuf Pathan, RakeshSolanki, Irfan Pathan and Hardik Parmar (Baroda), Sahil Kukreja, PaulValthaty, Vinit Indulkar, Arif Sunasara and Gautam Yadav (Mumbai),Padmanabh Jadeja, Uday Karavadra and Nikhil Rathod ( Saurashtra),Kiran Adhav, Yogesh Takwale and Manoj Palkhade (Maharashtra).Meanwhile the North Zone Cricket Academy was inaugurated on Tuesday byDDCA patron Subhash Chopra in Delhi.The 20 selected boys will undergo a two-month training, with a sessioneach in the morning and evening everyday, under head coach YashpalSharma, vice-president of Delhi and District Cricket Association,Khanna told PTI.Khanna said the controversy over inclusion of former Test cricketerGursharan Singh as one of the coaches was resolved after NCA ChairmanRaj Singh Dungarpur intervened and cleared his appointment along withother coaches Chetan Sharma, Rajinder Amarnath and Surinder Khanna.The appointments of Captain K B Dogra (physical trainer), Dr D KChauhan (physician), Dr Anmol Maria (orthopaedist), Dr Charu Jain(dietician), Sunil Kumar Chawla (yoga expert), and Dr A D Nayyar(psychiatrist) were also confirmed, Khanna said.
