Nurturing cricket at the feet of the Himalayas

New Delhi: Get a load of this. Amidst international cricket being played in soaring hot temperatures — only recently South Africa perspired to draw a three-Test series in India played almost entirely in the month of April, at centres more preferred for winter — there is a welcome change brewing.

Slowly but surely, a quiet revolution is taking shape. Smaller towns have thrown up pleasant surprises in terms of infrastructure. A picturesque stadium in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh is already being tipped to be India's next international venue. But there is another worthy claimant to this list.

This is the first cricket stadium in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, and it's not a stand-alone ground. Never a cricketer's destination, this is home to the National School of Cricket, an attempt at marrying extra-curriculars with academics under one roof.

A venture of the Abhimanyu Cricket Academy, the NSC has India's 1983 World Cup winning hero Roger Binny at the helm as its Director, while domestic stalwarts and renowned coaches like Rajdeep Kalsi, V Venkatram and Sarkar Talwar form the core group of its coaching staff.

The venture goes beyond imparting cricketing skills. It strives to keep students stay abreast with studies, a rarity in cricket-crazy India. Thus came the allegiance with The Asian School in Dehradun, which is affiliated to the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE).

The school houses libraries, computer labs et al besides top of the line cricketing infrastructure, which itself was a bolt from the blue.

It was startling to know that Dehradun used to have just one turf wicket, at the Indian Military Academy grounds. This stadium itself, constructed just outside the city limits, has five turf pitches, other than four practice pitches at the complex, one being synthetic.

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