BHUBANESWAR : The MGM School of Sports on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Coaching Beyond to develop cricketing talent in Odisha. The pact was signed here in presence of CMD of MGM Minerals Ltd Pankaj Lochan Mohanty and former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri.
One of the country’s leading cricket coaching academies, Coaching Beyond is the brainchild of Shastri, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar, former coaches of Team India.
MGM School of Sports has a residential academy with a capacity for 50 trainees on the outskirts of Cuttack.
As part of the venture, young cricketers in the age group of 16-19 will be selected through a systematic process and imparted best in the training at the academy. Coaching Beyond will be its knowledge partner and bring in the best in the world technical expertise to coach and groom budding cricketers. Former Test cricketer Venkatapathy Raju has been hired as the consultant coach.
Talking to media persons, Shastri said cricket is no longer confined to metro cities of India as players from smaller cities and towns have proved their mettle in the national and international circuits. “Exposure to quality coaching, better infrastructure and opportunities to the players by MGM School of Sports will produce international cricketers from Odisha soon,” said the ace commentator and former Indian coach.
Mohanty said the MGM School of Sports will be a high performance cricket academy where 50 players will be selected and their number in both male and female categories will be raised in the future. The academy will also run a daily coaching programme for both boys and girls of all age-groups. “Other academies of the state will be a feeder line to our academy,” he said.
MGM School of Sports has international standard cricket grounds, turf, astroturf and matting pitches, a six-lane indoor arena, gymnasium, swimming pool, physiotherapy and recovery centre. One-to-one coaching will be the secret of our academy, Mohanty said.
Reminiscing his experience in Cuttack, Shastri said he played at Barabati Stadium nearly four decades ago and scored a century. “Never did I expect to be here after so many years to groom young cricketers of Odisha. Cricket has not changed in our country, the competition is the same to get a place in the national squad.”