When Women in Blue lost to England in the so-near-so-yet far final at the Lords in the prestigious World Cup final, several hearts sank at the Andhra Cricket Association’s women’s academy at the JKC College grounds for it saw many members of the present Indian team enhancing their skills and taking up corrective measures.
Guntur shares a special bond with the Indian women team as they have attended many national camps and participated in tournaments staged at the academy since 2010.
In fact, the academy, spruced up by the ACA, was inaugurated by Mithali Raj and speedster Jhulan Goswami. The barren land was transformed into a lush green carpet with systematic sprinklers to keep the grass fresh and alive.
Well equipped
The academy has 20 rooms and dormitories to accommodate outstation teams along with modern gym, video analyst’s room and the latest group equipment.
“The ACA, led by former secretary Gokaraju Ganga Raju and former director M.S.K. Prasad along with late J. Narendranath strove hard to create state–of-the-art facilities at the academy thus making it a one-stop destination for Indian and International players,” says ACA secretary Ch. Arun Kumar.
Says NCA Level 3 coach Srinivasa Reddy, who coached the Indian team: “The visit of a Chinese women’s team and a quadrangular national tournament caught the attention of the BCCI honchos and they made the academy a hub of Indian women cricket.”
The declaration by BCCI enhanced the reputation of the academy and the elevation made the national cricketers like Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Raut, Veda Krishnamurthy and Ekta Bisht to descend on Guntur to get trained under Mr. Srinivas Reddy and other BCCI coaches.
Indian skipper Mithali Raj drove down from Hyderabad to the Mangalagiri indoor stadium and ACA Central Zone Academy whenever she found time she for a brief correction stint with NCA Level 3 coaches J. Krishna Rao and Thompson.
“In fact, before catching her flight to England for the World Cup, Mithali had a week-long session at Mangalagiri,” said Mr. Reddy.
