Ravi Shastri Launches ‘Cricket Coaching And Beyond’ Academy

The former Indian National player and head coach Ravi Shastri has newly launched an initiative naming ‘Cricket Coaching & Beyond’. This also includes former bowling coach Bharat Arun, and fielding coach R Sridhar — It was launched at the St John’s Cricket Academy in Secunderabad.

‘Cricket Coaching & Beyond’ offers a lot of facilities, a few of them are A state-of-the-art indoor facility, a spacious gym facility and 4 unique pitches with different characteristics.

The main reason to launch this initiative is to empower grassroots-level coaches across the country. As the next step of expansion, they are planning to set it up in Chennai at the Omega International School very soon.

Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun said that they have roped in Mr Suratwala for developing the coach education programmes.

Speaking about it Arun said — “We roped in Suratwala for our coach education programme because of the experience he brings. We want to give the coaching programme at an affordable and nominal fee. We need close to 5 million coaches in India, but we have only 3500 qualified coaches. We are having online tutorials too, which will make it easy to access,”

First Shastri and his team thought to launch this initiative during the 1st Covid lockdown but unfortunately, that couldn’t happen.

He said — “All of it started during the first lockdown. When there is knowledge, experience and talent and that kind of magnitude around, we thought, when once we finish our term, we should give it back to the grass-root level.”

“So we got into a conversation and Arun and Sridhar being as passionate as they are about coaching, came on board. And then came the question of where it should be? And that is when John Manoj came in, and we are here now,” — Shastri said.

Shastri has further explained the main reason for having a dedicated programme for coaches.

Speaking about the coaches, Shastri said — “We have seen the facilities around the world and the curriculum that certified coaches get overseas. So there will be exchange programmes with our set up and theirs. The reason for having a dedicated programme for coaches is to empower them to have a strong cricket culture”

He has concluded by saying — “So in that programme, he gets the opportunity to go and coach at the grassroots. They will gain first-hand experience and if they pass the test, one leads to another,”