A cricket school for Generation Next

The academy — set up with the support of The Indian Express — will focus on developing mental strength, the ability to play under pressure and a love of the game — apart from the more conventional skills — among the 8-10 age group. "Cricket these days has developed into a mind game. Just honing skills isn’t the end of the road; the mental make-up is also important," he says. It doesn’t come as a surprise, then, when you discover that he’s modelled his school (located behind the Sports Club of Gujarat) on the Australian Cricket Academy, where mental toughness is a way of life.

Hattangadi calls himself a coach with a learner’s license-plate. "The bigger the pool, the more water it can sustain. With an array of experts, the kids will have a sea of information to swim in high tide," he says.

So who are the experts? Gujarat Ranji Trophy skipper Mukund Parmar along with first class cricketers Chetan Mankad and Umesh Belsare, to begin with; they’ll be assisted by two qualified national coaches. They are merely appetisers; the main course is likely to include Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Ajay Jadeja, with the odd blast from the past lending the weight of valuable experience.

And they will be working on a talent pool drawn not from the elite of Ahmedabad, but from lanes and by-lanes, and even from the rural areas.

Most academies suffer from a frog-in-the-well syndrome; not this one. There are comprehensive travel plans, falling under the Exposure package, including trips to Mumbai and possibly to England to get over the fear of away games. "It’s not enough how well you play in your own backyard; your performance in someone else’s backyard counts as much," says Hattangadi. Words of wisdom from someone who’s played all over the country and done stints in England and Scotland.

One final question. How can a man who never played Test cricket start a coaching academy? "I know what it takes to make it to the Test squad. I have closely observed and interacted with those who’ve made it.” Moreover, one can’t argue with the wealth of experience at his command; 11 years of Ranji Trophy cricket with Mumbai and a first-class debut as fellow-opener to Sunil Gavaskar.

The man obviously knows the road to top-level cricket. For directions on how to get there, a stint at his academy wouldn’t do you any harm.