The curtains came down on the South Zone Academy in Chennai after more
than 50 days of fun and hard work in equal proportions. It was one of
five zonal academies inaugurated this season as part of the National
Cricket Academy's bold new foray to bring quality infrastructure to a
wider cross-section of youngsters. Instead of an elite group of 20
trainees at the NCA, the move has thrown open the window of
opportunity to about 120 aspirants with standard coaching techniques
introduced across the board.
A brief valedictory function was held at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on
Saturday to mark the successful completion of the programme, which was
launched on May 2. In his welcome address, the secretary of the Tamil
Nadu Cricket Association Ashok Kumbhat suggested that the boys at the
Academy must consider themselves fortunate to be selected for such a
specialised and intensive training.
The 20 youngsters, all in the Under-18 age group, were supervised by a
team of four coaches led by Syed Kirmani and also including J Abhiram,
K Bharat Kumar (both former Ranji Trophy players) and CS Umapathy. The
Chief Guest, A Vellayan, Director, Murugappa Group (marketing) said he
was pleased that the efforts of the Board of Control for Cricket in
India have been directed towards training in a much more focused way.
He pointed out that there is a direct co-relation between the amount
of time and funds directed towards coaching and the standards of the
Indian team.
Chief coach Kirmani gave a brief report of the progress made his
wards. He noted that the group was evenly balanced, comprising eight
batsmen, five medium pacers, two spinners, two allrounders and three
wicket keepers. Kirmani noted that the visits of Rodney Marsh, Brijesh
Patel, TA Sekhar and VV Kumar to the Academy pepped up the lads and
helped them garner some useful advice. The former Indian wicket keeper
said it was a tough workout for the boys who had to put in strenuous
efforts especially in the area of strength and endurance training,
besides practising in humid and energy sapping conditions.
But he observed that there was a qualitative improvement in their
standards at the end of the programme. Kirmani noted that the holistic
approach incorporated the services of a physical trainer,
physiotherapist, yoga expert, dietician, psychologist and
videographer, all roped in to provide critical inputs that would make
them well rounded players.
The boys will now adjourn to Bangalore for the inter-academy one-day
tournament from June 28 to July 2 with Vikram Kumar being named
captain of the South Zone team. Besides the five academies. a Combined
team gathered from players across all the academies is also in the
fray. Thirteen boys have been selected to the South Zone team and
three others for the Combined team. Kirmani had words of consolation
for those who did not make the cut, saying that they were as competent
as the rest, and should not lose heart.
The boys who passed out of the Academy's portals were HT Sudhir Rao,
Vinay Uthappa, Stuart Binny, Chetan Williams, Senthil Kumar and Steve
Lazarus (all Karnataka), ASK Varma, K Srinivasa Rao, PAVN Raju, G
Shankar Rao and Nalin Reddy (all from Andhra), T Suman and AT Rayudu
(Hyderabad), Vikram Kumar, Vishal Kudawla and DT Kumaran (Tamil Nadu),
Sreesanth, Vincent Gomes and Mousam Nathani (Kerala) and Sher Bahadur
Yadav (Goa).
Three outstanding trainees were chosen from amongst the lot, Vikram
Kumar, Rayudu and Vinay Uthappa, who were gifted with Hercules MTB
Thriller bicycles. Rayudu of course is the opening batsman who created
ripples during last year's Under-15 World Cup in England, making a
century in the final against West Indies. But given that the man who
called the shots at the Academy was arguably India's best wicket
keeper, it was perhaps no surprise that the other two, Vikram Kumar
and Vinay Uthappa, were fellow members of the tribe.