Grassroots the way
Venkat Anant in Yahoo Cricket visits Alur, where the KSCA have set up a new academy to encourage cricket right from the grassroot levels
07-Aug-2013
The KSCA have targeted grassroots cricket in order to find the next crop of Indian cricketers, and perhaps more importantly, Anil Kumble's management are attempting to provide young cricketers easy access to every facility needed to better their career. So a 33-acre plot of land in Alur, an hour and 20 minutes from Bangalore, has been fashioned into a cricket academy, with hopes of eventually becoming a Centre of Excellence, writes Venkat Ananth in Yahoo Cricket
Inaugurated in June 2012, the Alur facility now houses the Royal Challenge-KSCA Academy, headed by Indian legend Gundappa Viswanath. Srinath said, "Initially, academies in Karnataka were used for specific representational teams, like the Under-19 squad would train here for a camp ahead of a tournament. Access was limited, and it would almost seem like a transit camp. But now the idea is to make full use of the facility all round the year."