Sport - Cricket

DDCA academy for youngsters

NEW DELHI: The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) has decided to set up an academy to hone the skills of young players in and around the metropolis.

The academy will hire the services of Australian spin guru Terry Jenner and the Director of the National Cricket Academy, Dav Whatmore.

“The DDCA is all set to open its own state cricket academy on the patterns of the NCA,” DDCA General Secretary S. P. Bansal told mediamen on the occasion of the association’s annual prize distribution function here on Monday night.

The DDCA has also planned to organise a series of camps for the youngsters. The first camp, for spinners, has already started at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground with Mr Jenner and former India Test cricketers Gundappa Vishwanath and Shivlal Yadav as the coaches.

From August 18, another camp for medium pacers will be held. Former Pakistani captain Wasim Akram and ex-India pacer Manoj Prabhakar will conduct the camp.

“This process will continue for the benefit of the young players,” Mr Bansal said.

Besides, there will be camps for the girls and former India captain Sandhya Agarwal and 2007 ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year award-winning pace bowler Jhulan Goswami will oversee those.

The DDCA will employ doctors, physios and psychologists to provide facilities like physical and mental conditioning to the cricketers.

There are plans to put in place an indoor nets facility, a state-of-the-art gym and a swimming pool. “All these will be ready by the mid of 2009,” Mr Bansal said.

To make the club-level matches more competitive, the DDCA is mulling the introduction of a performance-based incentive scheme. “The details of this scheme are yet to be worked out,” Mr Bansal said.

Former India captain M.A.K. Pataudi and DDCA President Arun Jaitley gave away the prizes to the teams and cricketers.

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