The former Indian cricketer Brijesh Patel said in Mangalore on Sunday that the city needs an indoor stadium to train budding cricketers.
He said this at an event to announce the partnership between Cricket India Academy and city-based Mangala Sports Pvt. Ltd. to offer curriculum-based cricket education programme for boys and girls aged from 9 to 14. The academy is the cricket division of Sports Education Development India Ltd. (SEDIL), Mumbai.
Mr. Patel, a former Director of National Cricket Academy, said that Mangalore had good young cricket talents. But incessant rains came in the way of training them. If the boys and girls were to be trained for inter-zonal matches, their training should start in June, a rainy month in Mangalore. It required an indoor stadium. “Absence of a stadium is a major disadvantage for training boys here,” he said.
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The former Secretary of Karnataka State Cricket Association said that though there were many sports academies, most of them lacked “structured development programme.”
Mr. Patel said that budding cricketers needed exposure and access to latest techniques in bating and bowling. It needed quality coaches.
Martin Gleeson, Chief Executive Officer, SEDIL, said that Cricket India Academy offered focused coaching for boys and girls. The objective of the academy was that everybody should play cricket and get an opportunity to play cricket.
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The former Commissioner of Mangalore City Corporation J.R. Lobo said that when infrastructure was created for any sports it produced talent. A best example was that after a swimming pool was built in the city, it had produced swimming talents.
There was bright potential to promote Mangalore as the sports city, he said.