Hyderabad: Cricket Academy of Pathans to hone city youth skills

Balapur: The Cricket Academy of Pathans (CAP) on Tuesday launched its centre in Hyderabad to provide world-class infrastructure and coaching to budding cricketers.

CAP Director and former India international Yusuf Pathan, who opened the centre, said that the CAP initiative is aimed at giving back something to the game that gave him and his brother Irfan Pathan everything.He said the academy will provide to the budding cricketers a platform and infrastructure, which they lacked during their cricketing days.

Yusuf Pathan, who interacted with the students, shared the experiences he gained while playing cricket in Hyderabad and also his past association with the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise in the Indian Premier League.Pathan noted that Hyderabad has a lot of talent and it requires the best infrastructure.

"I am excited to launch our academy in Hyderabad as I have played here in the recent past and seen its cricketing talents from close quarters," the cricketer said."Seeing the massive pool of talent and cricketing culture in Hyderabad, I am sure that the students will be benefitted by our best-in-class coaching infrastructure and latest technology. I am confident that the CAP will receive tremendous interest from emerging cricketers and produce professional cricketers from Hyderabad," he added.

He also promised to allot 10 per cent of seats in the academy to underprivileged kids. "We will provide infrastructure for free to kids who can't afford it," he said.

The Hyderabad centre is the 23rd centre of CAP, which plans to launch centres in another 25 cities. CAP Managing Director Harmeet Vasdev said the academy has pledged to invest Rs 3 crore along with its partners for further aggressive expansion across India.

"We are planning to launch CAP in another 25 cities which includes Jodhpur, Kolkata, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Srinagar, Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam, Agra, Mathura, Bijnor, Gulbarga and Berhampur by the end of 2021," he said.Vasdev said that former Australia captain Greg Chappell will be their chief mentor, who has designed the curriculum for the academy based on Cricket Australia's methods.

CAP has partnered with PitchVision, a UK based cricket technology company, to track the students' performance in real-time as it automatically generates videos and statistical analysis.The academy also plans to launch a mobile application soon which will bridge the gap between the students, coaches and the management.

Vasdev pointed out that recently two players from CAP in Patna represented the Bihar state team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, while overall, 55 students across India have represented various district and state level teams. A few players are also representing their respective state teams in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy.