The National Cricket Academy (NCA) Board of the BCCI has decided to identify a "30-acre plot of land" on the outskirts of Bangalore or Pune and build a state-of-the-art high performance centre on the lines of the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane.
The National Cricket Academy (NCA) Board of the BCCI has decided to identify a "30-acre plot of land" on the outskirts of Bangalore or Pune and build a state-of-the-art high performance centre on the lines of the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane.
In its first meeting since the recent elections, the NCA Board decided to prepare a "road map" to develop the NCA, located on the premises of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in the heart of Bangalore, into a high performance centre. The committee, the important members of which are MP Pandove (chairman), Niranjan Shah (vice-chairman), Brijesh Patel (director) and Amitabh Choudhary (convenor and BCCI joint secretary) spoke of the need to establish a "nodal centre" for all developmental activities with a "renewed focus" to develop India's next generation of cricketers.
Over the years, the NCA has turned into a rehab centre for injured players. The facility was termed cramped and outdated, with little scope for research. "It's time India had a high performance centre on the lines of the Australian model," said an official who attended the meeting.
"A few of our colleagues visited the Australian centre last year. What caught their eye was the amount of research carried out there. The proposed NCA will have everything from player development to sports science facilities under one roof. It's a long-term plan. The location and plans will be finalised soon. They will be presented to the Working Committee soon. We are keen on Bangalore, but are open to moving to Pune or even Dharamsala. It depends on the availability land," he added.
Another influential official said the BCCI may have to shell out more than Rs 100 crore for 30 acres of land. For the record, the Brisbane facility is worth A$29 million (approximately Rs 145 crore). It boasts biomechanical force plates and an advanced motion analysis camera system, a rehab centre including a three-lane, 25-metre lap pool and a hot and cold plunge pool, three medical consulting rooms, a physio treatment area and a gymnasium with an anti-gravity treadmill.
Money isn't necessarily a problem for the BCCI. But do they have the will?
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