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BCCI’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) is going to recruit two coaches in the batting and bowling department with emphasis on hybrid tutoring and refined cricketing education on Wednesday. Former India captain Rahul Dravid, the director at NCA, is overseeing the recruitment process, and BCCI president, and his long-time teammate, Sourav Ganguly is assisting in backing him with the formalities.

To that extent, the BCCI is in the middle of hiring coaching staff at the NCA once again after it had last decided, in October 2020, not to renew the ongoing contracts of coaches who were engaged by the academy two years ago Despite the raging pandemic, the batting legend, in his role as the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), is striving hard, along with his staff, to provide continued online support to India’s cricketing ecosystem.

BCCI Conducted Level-2 Coaching Courses For Former International And First-Class Cricketers

Just before the second wave of Covid, Rahul Dravid got the NCA cracking with a first-of-its-kind initiative – conducting two Fast Track Level-2 coaching courses for former international and First-Class cricketers, who have played more than 75 games. Amongst those taking part were former India players Wasim Jaffer, Ramesh Powar, and current national selector Debashish Mohanty among others.

Former India cricketers Lakshmipathy Balaji and Hrishikesh Kanitkar were part of the BCCI-NCA coaching session. - FILE PHOTO/C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM — Former India cricketers Lakshmipathy Balaji and Hrishikesh Kanitkar were part of the BCCI-NCA coaching session. – FILE PHOTO/C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

Earlier in March, BCCI in India’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) conducted two Fast Track Level 2 Courses for international and first-class cricketers, who have played over 75 first-class games, in a first-of-its-kind initiative. Some of the attendees included the likes of Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Abhinav Mukund, Sarandeep Singh, Debashish Mohanty, Vinay Kumar, Lakshmipathy Balaji, and Robin Uthappa.

The courses were conducted in a Hybrid Model keeping in mind the ongoing pandemic situation. Phase 1 of the course was delivered online over four days, followed by Phase 2, which was conducted at the NCA across four more days. A wide array of topics was covered, including Skill Acquisition, Applied Biomechanics in Pace Bowling, Spin Bowling, Batting, WicketKeeping, Building Social and Personal Competence, and Video Analysis.

Rahul Dravid on exposure:

In an exclusive interview, Rahul Dravid shed light on what purpose these courses according to BCCI guidelines serve to India’s cricket coaching community.

“In terms of technical knowledge and understanding of the players, I feel that our coaches are some of the best in the world. When you couple that with the fact that the BCCI conducts over 2000 games a year at all levels, our coaches and cricketers get exposure like no one else in the world. It would be nice to see them get the recognition they deserve,” Rahul Dravid said on Indian coaches

“A lot of these coaches, because of the fact that they’re experienced and some of them have played international and First-Class cricket, are already in important coaching positions. Let’s be honest, international players and players who’ve played a lot of cricket at the First-Class level have quite a few options,” Rahul Draavid explained regarding Level-2 course.

National Cricket Academy, Bengaluru is amongst the best cricket academies in India (Source: SportsWiki)

“This course was the first of the many courses that we’re now reviving. For some of the new states that have just started playing the Ranji Trophy, the BCCI has already conducted a few Level-1 courses. Even during the lockdown, one of the major things we were able to do was conduct the Level-1 courses in a hybrid (online and onsite) format.

During the lockdown, we completed the online version of the Level-1 course for 10-11 state associations. In terms of Level-2, because we haven’t done the course for seven years, we’ve a backlog of close to 150-160 coaches,” on Level-1 and Level-2 course.

“In a country like India, the more the number of qualified and good coaches we have, the better it is. If you consider the fact that there’s 38 state teams and 7 teams per state, that means that there is a requirement of 266 coaches.

Let’s assume each team has a head coach and assistant coach then that means that 532 coaches will be in the system. The responsibility of hiring and employing the coaches with the respective associations is the responsibility of the state units,” Rahul Dravid said on number of coaches.

When the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) – led by former CAG Vinod Rai – was running the BCCI, a detailed presentation was made to the Board on how the NCA’s coaching unit should function going forward. The COA decided to “junk” the presentation for reasons undisclosed and the BCCI, after members came to power back in 2019, have continued to ignore the same once again.