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ShareBangalore: Having coached a number of national sides including India, life seems to have come full circle for Sandeep Patil, one of the most flamboyant cricketers the country has produced.
On Monday, Patil took charge of his latest assignment as the director of National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore and just two days later, he said his new job is "like going back to school".
"For the last two days, I have been learning about NCA's functioning and every minute I am getting to know something new," said Patil while speaking to reporters here on Wednesday.
He said his immediate goal was to make NCA a centre capable of providing immediate replacement to the Indian team if any player is injured.
"Look at the current India-Australia series...so many Aussie players have been injured. If the same scenario repeats with us in the future, NCA should be able to give immediate replacement," said Patil.
"Which means that the challenge before me right now is to produce a pool of youngsters who are ready at to take up any kind of assignment any time," he added.
Patil also wants to focus on the rehabilitation of cricketers.
"With the packed cricket schedule, injuries are bound to happen. During our time we played even with injuries but now times are different," said Patil. "So first we need to send replacement and then make them fit at the earliest," he added.
Top among Patil's agenda is to set up 27 state academies. He also praised the work done by Dav Whatmore. "I hope I can do even 10 per cent of what Whatmore and his team has done in the past two years," he said.
"With people like Paul Close, Paul Chapman, Arun, Ramesh around, who have been doing a great work, I am hopeful that I can carry forward the job," he added.
