Aussie wicketkeeping legend Rod Marsh, in town to inspect the rapidly-rising ICC Global Cricket Academy at Sports City, is brimming with enthusiam at the rapid progress of the project.
The academy is on track to take in its first players next year and Marsh, who is the academy's director of cricket, said. “I'm very hopeful that by this time next year we'll be playing. After next summer we'll be able to do more and by the first quarter of 2009 it will be a full-up cricket academy. I'm totally amazed by the progress. Last time I looked at it was about six months ago and now, well, it's a stadium. It's about two storeys high all-round. But the worst part about it is, I want it built yesterday!''
Once the building work is finished Marsh will oversee the whole academy operation. He will work at the ICC site in Dubai for 100 days each year with his team of coaches, and intends to be very hands-on.
Until then a big part of his role is to promote the benfits of the academy world-wide, and Marsh will travel to England early next month to persuade the England and Wales Cricket Board and the counties to use the academy's state-of-the-art facilities in the years to come.
“You've got two grounds there and you can imagine four counties being out here. The opportunities to practise and train will be second to none.'' A unique feature of the academy will be different soils brought from all over the world. “So whether you want Sub-continent-type pitches or fast bouncy tracks, our curator will be able to provide it.''
The knock-on effect will be of benefit to the grassroots of cricket in Dubai too. “I've had schools contact me already saying, ‘let us know when it's open, we want to send our kids along,' so it's got to be a great benefit to UAE cricket as a whole.''
