Doha: MS Dhoni Cricket Academy has launched a ‘talent hunt exchange programme’ in Qatar with Absolute Sports, organisers announced Wednesday.
MS Dhoni Cricket Academy, MSDCA, is an initiative of Aarka Sports with the backing of cricketers MS Dhoni and Mihir Diwakar with the aim of transforming the “standard of coaching and the development of cricket” in India and abroad.
The MSDCA employs technology, high-class coaching facility and certified coaches, a press release said.
Aarka Sports founder Mihir Diwakar was a part of the India U19 World Cup winning team.
“We took the initiative to start our programme in Qatar to create opportunities for children, and to engage with local partners for the development in cricket before a fully-pledged academy starts in Qatar,” Diwakar said.
Absolute Sports Chairman Khalid Al Khayarin said Qatar needs a structured cricket coaching center.
“We are looking forward to start a world-class cricket coaching academy in the future to make it as one of MSDCA's flagship centers in the region,” he added.
MSDCA has 12 centers in India, two in Singapore and one in Dubai and 20 more centers will be functional by March 2020.
With this objective MSDCA India organised seven-day cricket coaching clinics in 40 cities in India and London in which 5,000 children were trained.
MSDCA organized a ‘2-Coach Education Programme’ in July and September where more than 250 applicants registered and out of which 45 were selected and 20 of them are now working as full-time coaches. They include both fresh and experienced coaches with a cricketing background.
Coaches were also educated on the role of coaching, how to interact with parents, first aid and the use tech-tools.
Diwakar said Aarka Sports and MSDCA invest heavily in the training and development of their coaches to ensure a high-quality training programme. “We are aspiring to be present in more than 100 cities by 2021.”
He said they are coming up with mobile applications and other tools to manage academies.
Indian Sports Centre general secretary Muhammed Habibunnabi, Centre’s cricket in charge Srinivas TS, Indian Business and Professional Council’s Gopal Balasubramani also took part in the meeting.
