Out of order

Over the years,the biggest possible names in Indian cricket with too many things on their plate,and few foreign experts too,have been at the helm of affairs at the NCA. Invariably,a change on the name plate outside the Chairman’s chamber at the NCA has coincided with a shift in focus of the institution. The last decade has seen the academy being projected as a finishing school,a centre of excellence for elite cricketers,a monitoring institute for fringe players,a one-stop rehabilitation clinic and even a college for coaches. This has meant confused priorities,muddled planning,detached leadership and,ultimately,the NCA failing to groom talented cricketers.

The snag in Indian cricket’s assembly line manifested itself at the start of the Sri Lanka tour when India were looking far and wide for a couple of new ball bowlers,from a heap of unfit or out-of-sorts pacers. When the NCA-endorsed ‘fit-again’ S Sreesanth broke down after a couple of training sessions in Sri Lanka,India’s first Test fortunes depended on the far-from-intimidating pace pair of an inexperienced debutant (Abhimanyu Mithun) and a youngster short on confidence (Ishant Sharma).

In the background of Zaheer Khan’s fragile fitness,Munaf Patel’s stagnation,Ashish Nehra’s reluctance to play Tests,the unfathomable Irfan Pathan’s mystery and Praveen Kumar’s limitations,the pace tale becomes even more depressing. Each of the above-mentioned cases individually go on to prove that the NCA has neither been a finishing school,nor a centre for excellence,or even a reliable rehab clinic. The spin department is no different as Team India struggle to fill in the void left by Anil Kumble.

Spin stalwart Erapalli Prasanna says the NCA hasn’t produced a quality player for a while now. “This is a serious issue that the board needs to address at the earliest. NCA was set up to groom young talent and make them India material. But of late,it’s not producing anything. The need of the hour is middle-over management,which is spin bowling. Not just that,we don’t have a pace attack that can bowl 50 overs in an innings,” says Prasanna,who had quit the academy after he joined the rebel Indian Cricket League.

A few other past cricketers and leading voices in Indian cricket go mum when the NCA is mentioned. With salaries of NCA coaches ranging from Rs 2 – 75 lakh per year,not many are willing to ruin their chances of getting a plum posting. It is only after going through the minutes of NCA meetings and off-the-record conversations with the insiders,that one gets an idea about the lack of vision at an institution whose head has too many things on his plate.

For chairman Ravi Shastri,the NCA appointment happens to be one of the several time consuming responsibilities he has been given by the BCCI. Records show Shastri has attended just two of the four NCA meetings that have been convened during his tenure in the last couple of years. Being a governing council member of the Indian Premier League and his commentary assignments mean that the former all-rounder has his fingers in too many pies. Repeated calls to get his views on India’s flimsy bench strength go unanswered. Ask about Shastri’s whereabouts to a senior member of the NCA committee and he goes silent. “Most times,even we can’t get through to him,” he says,not willing to be named.

Complete disconnect

It is widely believed that NCA’s biggest folly has been its total disconnect with Team India and its lack of co-ordination with the coach and captain. Vice-chairman Ajay Shirke agrees. “As of now,Team India and NCA are separate units. The only time Team India players drop in at NCA is for specific training camps or injury rehabilitation. It’s not easy to have a straight coordination because then there’s a process involving the selectors in between,” says Shirke. With all BCCI ex-officio members part of the NCA committee,it remains a mystery how the pertinent point that Shirke makes got lost in the meeting.

National selectors too rue the fact that the NCA functions independently. Former North Zone selector Bhupinder Singh Sr calls for a better coordination between the NCA and the selection committee. “Selectors should be involved in the process because they have a plan in mind. For example,if the selectors are looking at a player with the 2011 World Cup in mind,they could ask the NCA to take him under their wings. That way,the selectors also know he’s in the hands of responsible people,” says Bhupinder.

As of now,all 30 contracted players can walk into the NCA anytime of the year; unlike others,they don’t need a written recommendation from their state associations. But once at the NCA,they follow their own schedule. The local coaches don’t have any say as the players themselves decide their training regime. A Team India bowler says there is no monitoring process at NCA. “If I have been dropped from the Indian team,NCA has no idea what is wrong with me. In case I’m coming off a bad stint,NCA should be a place where I am told what is wrong with me,” he says.

More coaches,less players

The frequent change of officials has also hampered continuity. The present director,Sandeep Patil,suggested in a meeting earlier this year that the NCA should also have space for talented cricketers in the 8-11 age group. Patil was on a different page compared to his predecessor Dav Whatmore,who wanted to make the NCA a state-of-the-art institute that concentrates only on the top players. Another former chairman had suggested an ‘open door’ policy,whereby any player can walk in for a trial and try his luck at being a part of the academy.

Former director Shivlal Yadav says that,ideally,the NCA should be a place where youngsters are housed for an extended period of time while the national players have short stints. “We used to have two-month long coaching camps for under-19 cricketers so that the boys can learn and rectify their mistakes. It’s disappointing when we hear that the NCA is now producing more coaches than players,” he says. What Yadav says is true,since the NCA is crowded with coaches who are there to attend several courses; lately,bowlers with suspect action too are called here to rectify their problems.

Unimaginative changes

Over the years,there have been structural changes in the NCA that haven’t been too imaginative. After scrapping the five zonal wings of NCA,the BCCI has now started three ‘specialised academies’ for batsmen,spinners and pacers. But after the first batch had finished their course at the batting academy in Mumbai,a flaw was noticed.

A former national selector points to the short-sightedness of the decision. “At the batting academy in Mumbai,four of the most talented youngsters in the country spent 20 days recently. But did anyone check who was bowling to them? Since all the top bowlers in the country were at the spin and pace academy at the same time,the batsmen played some ordinary bowlers in Mumbai. For me,that’s a waste of time. All these youngsters should have been together at the NCA,” he says.

Maybe,after the present crisis in the Indian team,the NCA will finally get an overhaul after its decade long existence.

Time line

2000: BCCI launches NCA with Raj Singh Dungarpur as chairman. Harbhajan Singh,Yuvraj Singh,Zaheer Khan,Murali Kartik,Gautam Gambhir are among the first batch of 24 trainees picked for a four-month camp.

2001: Sunil Gavaskar takes over as chairman,with Brijesh Patel as director.

2003: NCA focuses on grooming under-16 and under-19 players,as five zonal academies are launched to spread the net wider.

2004: The highly competitive inter-zonal academy tournaments throw up several talented players. Lack of proper cricketing infrastructure at home means several Uttar Pradesh cricketers flock NCA. Many of them graduate to top level.

2006: Another change of guard as Kapil Dev replaces Gavaskar as chairman.

2007: Kapil joins the rebel Indian Cricket League,it’s now Ravi Shastri’s turn at the top job.

2008: Dav Whatmore joins NCA as Director of Cricket Operations. BCCI stops pacers from going to MRF Pace Foundation at Chennai,as they have planned their own bowling academy.

2009: NCA comes up with a coaching manual while keeping in mind local conditions. Later,Whatmore resigns from NCA to coach the Kolkata Knight Riders. Sandeep Patil is now the director.

2010: All zonal academies close down. The BCCI now has separate academies for batsmen,pacers and spinners. Fast bowlers are now once again encouraged not to go MRF Academy.

Hit wicket

A few cases where NCA could’ve made a difference but didn’t

Pathan mystery
When Irfan Pathan lost his pace and swing for the first time,NCA wasn’t the place he headed. It was a stint with his old mentor at the MRF academy TA Sekar that saw him eventually return to Team India. With Irfan out of the team again,India is struggling to find a quality all-rounder. With no one-stop shops like the MRF Pace Foundation (where Irfan and others have gone full-time during the off-season earlier to rectify their problems to make a successful comeback) Irfan has been pretty much left to fend for himself,reporting to NCA from time to time for fitness-related issues.

Unplanned return
S Sreesanth had been a constant feature at the NCA recuperating on a series of injuries and preparing for the Sri Lanka tour by bowling to Rahul Dravid at the nets. Without playing a single competitive game,he was included for the Sri Lanka Test series. Sreesanth broke down with an injury in the first practice session in Sri Lanka and returned home. Someone at NCA hadn’t planned his rehabilitation and return to top level cricket right.

Ishant’s dilemma
Ishant Sharma has seen a drastic decline in his stock over the last one year. The Delhi fast bowler has been struggling with his run-up,wrist position,sudden loss of pace,swing and bounce (to name a few). Ishant has also been working with too many coaches in recent past — Manoj Prabhakar,Wasim Akram,state coach Vijay Dahiya and old coach Shravan Kumar — to get over his lean patch. He spent the off-season working out on his own,playing local club cricket to get into rhythm and before leaving for Sri Lanka for the Test series, Ishant practiced bowling daily to Gautam Gambhir at a private academy. Ishant,expected to lead the attack in absence of Zaheer Khan,struggled to make an impact and is still a work in progress.

MRF flip flop
NCA has had a ‘blow hot,blow cold’ relationship with the MRF Pace Academy. In 2008,it was decided that no bowler would visit the Chennai-based private academy since NCA was planning its own pace bowling unit. Interestingly,during a recent NCA meeting,it was decided that batches of bowlers should go to MRF instead and spend time with Australian fast bowling legend Dennis Lillee,during his three annual visits to the country.

No special plan
This happens to be BCCI’s new pet project. The idea of providing specialised training to youngsters resulted in the scrapping of zonal cricket academies. According to the new plan,the best batting talent was to be coached in Mumbai,the fast bowlers trained in Chandigarh,while the spinners bunched in Chennai. But there was a glitch: the batsmen would have ordinary bowlers bowling to them and the bowlers came across modest batsmen,unlike the ZCA where the best of talent from one zone were grouped together.

Hands full
Training coaches,physios,video analysts along with junior,fringe and India A players happens to be among the things NCA is into. Besides,the NCA also helps bowlers rectify their faulty actions. An additional charge of the NCA director is to keep an eye on the various academies coming up at all the states around the country. And that means frequent trips for director Sandeep Patil across the country.