April 2: Abhirup Sikdar, Class IX, Aditya Academy Senior Secondary School, Dum Dum, has been playing cricket for nine years but he was not quite satisfied with the training facilities at the clubs and academies he visited.
The promising left-hand batsman has now reached the right address to hone his skills. Aditya School of Sports on Jessore Road encourages the 30-odd budding cricketers enrolled there at present to dream big.
The sports school promises to train boys and girls aged six to 18 in cricket, football, basketball, table tennis and chess. Training sessions for cricket and football have already started and facilities for other games will soon be launched.
"I like the facilities here. The outfield is great. There are three turf pitches and three concrete pitches and also a bowling machine. The coaches are very experienced and helpful," said Abhirup, 14, who has already played in CAB under-14 and under-16 tournaments five times.
It was an added incentive for the Sourav Ganguly fan when the former India captain inaugurated the academy in February. Former Bengal Ranji player Abdul Monayem, BCCI Level C coach Satyajit Lahiri and former Bengal player and CAB umpire Beauty Chakraborty are taking care of the cricket facility at the academy.
"It's a great endeavour to find and nurture talents of Bengal in various disciplines of sports. I haven't seen such facilities in any other academy in the city. There are 380 cricket coaching camps and 97 clubs in Bengal now, but hardly any quality player who can play for India. I believe with this kind of academy, we can address that," said coach Monayem.
Monayem got Maidan gardeners to build a beautiful grassy outfield at the academy.
"We have a great drainage system and so we can train the boys even in the monsooon" said coach Lahiri. "We try to help the players feel the match conditions at nets. For example, wearing spikes is a must for our bowlers at nets," he said.
Monayem plans to build a team for inter-school and inter-club tournaments.
The football facility has 30 boys training under former India player Debjit Ghosh and Maidan player Rupak Dutta. "The ground, the facilities and the atmosphere are great. We are now focusing on developing the basics and I hope we will get some good football talents soon," said coach Debjit.
Soumen Sanyal, Class IX, Aditya Academy Secondary School, Barasat, lives in Kestopur and has been playing football since Class V. "I used to train at a local club. Training under coaches like Debjit sir can help me dream of becoming a professional footballer," said the Cristiano Ronaldo fan.
Anirban Aditya, the chairman of Aditya Group and the brain behind Aditya School of Sports, said the lack of quality players from Bengal had prompted him to set up the school of sports. "I am passionate about sports and I always felt that the sports facilities in Calcutta were not up to the mark. So I thought if we can create proper facilities for students, we can get some good talents from Bengal," said Anirban.
Picture by Chanchal Ghosh
