BCCI Acquires Land For the Construction of Revamped National Cricket Academy
Jan 9, 2019 at 4:09 PM
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has acquired the necessary land to construct an improved National Cricket Academy. This development in BCCI’s ambitious plan to have its own high-performance academy comes as a huge sigh of relief, as it marks the end of a long-standing matter between the Karnataka government and India’s apex cricketing board.
The BCCI planned such an infrastructure as an alternative for the existing National Cricket Academy situated adjacent to the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. In recent years, the academy was losing its prominence and according to some, it had become a ‘rehab centre.’
Therefore, the BCCI planned of having its own arrangements and facilities in place. Interestingly, this will be the board’s first own property for the cricketing purpose. The initiative was kick-started by Anurag Thakur & Co. two years ago.
The stand-off also resulted in forcing the BCCI to think of a different option and look Pune and Dharamsala as the new venue. But, fortunately for Bengaluru, the issue has now been resolved and it is set to have another world-class cricketing home academy in its neighbourhood.
“The BCCI didn’t want to depend on any other association. It gets very difficult to sustain the facility as the control lies with the local association. Having its own property will allow the board to run the academy smoothly,” a BCCI source said.
The land is situated within touching distance of the Kempegowda international airport in Devanahalli. BCCI’s acting president, CK Khanna, confirmed that construction work would start once the board is allotted a further 25 acres of land. He said that the academy would be ready in two years time.
An idea of former BCCI President Raj Singh Dungarpur, the current National Academy Cricket was established in 2000 as a facility for Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to train young cricketers with great potentials.
Top names like Zaheer Khan, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Piyush Chawla and Rohit Sharma have been a part of the academy during the early stages of their career.
In order to develop the cricketers to their maximum potential, the BCCI, in 2014, also tied up with the Cricket Australia and the ECB for knowledge sharing.