Kumble and Ganguly to be part of coaching clinics

Former India captains Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly will head the expert panel for a series of specialist skills coaching clinics starting at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore on Tuesday.

The clinics, to be held over ten days, will be attended by qualified Level Two and Three coaches from all over the country. A release said: "The initiative is in line with the BCCI's mandate that all states establish their own academies by April 30 this year, and will ensure they are headed up by highly-skilled personnel."

Besides Kumble and Ganguly, the others in the panel of 'master coaches' include Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad - India's fielding and bowling coaches - besides former internationals Saba Karim, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Venkatapathy Raju. The panel will be supported by NCA staff under Dav Whatmore, the director of operations.

"B Arun, Dinesh Nanavati and R Sridhar will oversee the various cricket skills, supplemented by Dr Kinjal Suratwala (nutrition, psychology) and Paul Chapman (fitness)," the release said. "Noted Australian biomechanist, Dr Rene Ferdinands, will anchor the courses at the Academy's facility at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore." Ferdinands, who played first-class cricket in New Zealand, developed the first three-dimensional kinetics model of bowling.