Three West Zone associations interested in Zonal Academy

Three associations in the West Zone, including the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), have evinced interest in setting up the Zonal Cricket Academy on the lines of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) at Bangalore.

The BCCI executive secretary, Sharad Diwadkar, told PTI in Mumbai on Saturday that the MCA was interested in setting up the academy at the Wankhede Stadium while the Gujarat Cricket Association and the Maharashtra Cricket Association too are interested in setting up the academy at Ahmedabad and Pune respectively.

"The NCA vice-president G Agashe, committee members Polly Umrigar and Brijesh Patel and myself will inspect the facilities available in these centres from January 23 and by the second week of February, we should be able to finalise one," added Diwadkar.

Meanwhile, the MCA joint secretary Ratnakar Shetty was confident that Mumbai would get the Zonal Academy.

"The MCA with the help of the Garware Club will provide all the facilities required by the NCA. Mumbai being the nursery for Test cricketers, it will be a good idea to have the academy here," he added.