St John’s Cricket Foundation offers three-level course for coaches
Hyderabad: The St John’s Cricket Foundation that has produced Test cricketers like VVS Laxman, G Hanuma Vihari in Marredpally has undergone a complete metamorphosis — indeed a change for the good. Not just the name, but the environs and ambience has not only acquired all the modern English county club looks but facilities too. Now named Coaching Beyond, there are a number of new additional facilities added. The upgrade was done a few months ago. A lush green outfield, with white-painted pickets and a full-fledged modern gymnasium is an asset to the trainees. The indoor bowling nets provide a perfect run up to the pace bowlers. Former Team India coach Ravi Shastri launched this academy in the first week of this month. Shastri launched the academy along with Bharat Arun (former bowling coach) and R Sridhar (former fielding coach).
Shastri in his speech had said that they were committed to make the youth sports experience positive and enriching for all our trainees. “We would want to make sports a part of their life whether they pursue it professionally or otherwise,” he said.
It is a different concept, according to Sridhar. “We are here to train the coaches and trainees also. It is a big challenge”, he said.
As the first initiative, the Academy conducted a foundation course for cricket coaches, a first of a kind by a private institution. It is a six-day course concluded on Thursday. The biggest advantage that this academy has is they have knowledge of coaching experience as people like Arun, Sridhar, Dr Kinjal Suratwala, Jaykumar Menon, Nandan Phadnis, who had done their stints at National Cricket Academy.
Around 150 coaches from all over the country had applied for this course. Out of these, 28 were selected including two women. The oldest was 58-year-old Col Irshad Khan, played in the Rohinton Baria tournament for Aligarh University. “It is all my love for the game. I want to learn more about coaching,’’ he said. Soniya Dabir, former India women Test player said: “I got the opportunity to see cricket coaching from a new perspective.”
These courses are more on the lines of NCA coaching training. The first of the courses is called bronze course, similar to Level 1 while silver is Level 2 and gold is Level 3. The bronze course stresses on the foundation of a good coach. Skills like coaching principles, philosophy, coaching styles, learning and teaching were all taught with emphasis on batting, bowling and fielding. “Modern day coaching is not all about theory, it needs a lot of practical coaching. The basics are very important in this first level coaching and then afterwards, the coach has to be good in modern technology,’’ said Sridhar.
Kinjal said most of the players think they can be good coaches. “It is here that they should understand it is different as a coach. He can’t expect a trainee to execute a shot like him/her. A coach has to be very patient particularly at the grassroots levels as the child and parent are overenthusiastic. It is all a learning process,’’ he concluded.
