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Guwahati, Jan. 20: The Assam Cricket Association today announced the proposed introduction of a state-level under-14 inter-cricket coaching centre tournament to help enhance the standard of coaching at the grassroots level.
Addressing the gathering during the prize-distribution ceremony of the Umananda Bora Trophy inter-district (U-13) cricket tournament at Nehru Stadium here today, ACA secretary Bikash Baruah said they would involve all the cricket coaching centres across the state in the proposed tournament.
“It has been necessitated to enhance the standard of coaching at the foundation level. On the basis of the results in the tournament, the coaching centres will themselves be accountable to the guardians of the children they train,” he explained.
The ACA has pulled up the coaching centres on the basis of observations in the under-13 tournament that ended today.
In a letter to the coaching centres across the state, the ACA secretary said most of the players in the district teams claimed to be trained at different coaching centres but did not know the basics of cricket. “Our technical experts have observed that some of the batsmen even do not know how to grip the bat and so is the case with the bowlers as far as the grip on the ball and run-up is concerned. It is high time we take appropriate steps so that the mushrooming coaching centres and academies impart quality training to the youngsters,” Baruah told The Telegraph.
“A lot of the coaching centres have virtually become a business venture for some people, thanks to the ignorance of the guardians. I can see very few coaching centres are producing quality cricketers for the state, while there is no dearth of talent among trainees of others too, who are unfortunately, not trained by competent coaches,” the ACA secretary said.
He suggested that the coaching centres and academies could engage at least past or present Ranji cricketers, if not National Cricket Academy-trained coaches.
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