Nazar cannot wait to open academy

Junior sport Mudassar Nazar expects youngsters to make a beeline for the Global Cricket Academy when the centre of excellence opens for business later this year.

Mudassar Nazar is expecting youngsters to make a beeline for the Global Cricket Academy (GCA) when the centre of excellence opens for business later this year. The International Cricket Council (ICC) academy, taking shape at Dubai Sports City, has been generating plenty of interest among expatriate schoolchildren. Nazar, one of the two head coaches at the GCA, is excited about the prospect of starting to work with his first batch of prodigies.

"We are just about getting ready," said the former Pakistan player, who also headed his country's national cricket academy. "Looking towards November, we should be fully geared up - up and running." Nazar has been waiting for action since his arrival at the start of the year. In the meantime, he has been busy spreading the word in schools and designing programmes for the various courses at the GCA.

"We have been visiting the schools and delivering classes, making them aware about our programmes," he said. "Wherever we have gone, children have shown a lot of interest. The teachers have been very keen as well, not just in our cricketing programmes, but also in our coaching programmes. We have been inundated with requests and we cannot wait to start." After such an overwhelming response plans are already afoot to extend the age groups. "In the beginning, we thought we would run programmes for the under 13s, under 15s, under 17s and under 19s," said Nazar.

"But there was so much interests from the schools that it is fairly likely we will start from under seven and go right up to the elite group of students. We will also conduct school and club tournaments. The plan is to reach out to all walks of life in UAE as far as cricket is concerned. "The administrators here have worked very hard to bring the game to where it is. We will try to fill any gaps that might have been left."

The academy is also making an effort to attract more Emiratis to the game and Nazar has already visited a few local schools, but he admitted it was going to take time. "We are starting from scratch and that is the only way to make a breakthrough here. We need to double up on our efforts and try to bring in a lot of Arabs into the fold. That is the way forward." The GCA will have two full-sized floodlit ovals with 10 pitches - five with soil of the Asian variety and five of the Australian type. There will be around 42 practice pitches as well, both turf and artificial, mimicking different surfaces around the globe.

In addition, there are six indoor practice pitches - two spin-friendly, two pace-friendly and two batsman-friendly - to prepare the players for any surface, from the fast and bouncy wickets in Australia to the turning tracks of India. Besides these, the academy will also have an integrated technology suite to help with the development, and physiotherapy, sports medicine and other support services.

All cricket-playing nations of the world are expected to make use of these facilities, but the local cricketers are expected to benefit the most. "There are some decent cricketers here, but they need exposure," said Nazar. "That is the only thing lacking. You can only improve by playing against better players. "I think if we start to develop cricket all across UAE, starting at under seven to club level and then take it further, that's when the cricket will improve.

"These are probably not available to the best Test-playing countries. So the UAE, in that regard, are quite fortunate and I hope they will take advantage of it." [e-mail]