Dubai: East Sports Management (ESM) Cricket Academy will provide exposure for budding cricketers in the UAE through an exchange tour programme with star Indian allrounder Ravichandran Ashwin’s Gen Next Cricket Academy in Chennai, India.
After launching the ESM Cricket Academy in a function held at the Shyam Bhatia Cricket museum on Friday, Ashwin said: “I have proposed to Kobus Olivier, director of cricket at the ESM Academy that we do an exchange programme. I am really excited on the idea of sending boys to my academy. There are some wonderfully talented cricketers here. I actually wanted to adopt a few of them and actually take them back home. We have top teams in Chennai where we get these boys to play. I saw some exceptionally talented players here and hopefully I may see them during next year in July or August in Chennai.”
Ashwin, who conducted the two-day Master Clinic with ESM Cricket Academy at the Gems Wellington Academy, revealed how he set up his Gen Next Academy which is now among the most popular academies in Chennai. “Gen Next is my own baby. I started it with no vision to it but has ended up in a different place altogether. In this whole cricketing fraternity, I stand out because nobody who plays active cricket embarks on a journey of coaching. I made my debut for India in 2010 and the same year, I started my academy back home. I started it as an indoor coaching with my childhood coach Sunil Subramaniam. The vision was to make some sort of a living for my own coach but when I coached there, I did not initially think I am going to benefit out of it. Soon I realised that coaching like in education if you teach someone, you too become a better student, I too benefited heavily out of it. It improved my knowledge of the game.”
Commenting on Ashwin’s suggestion, Korbus said: “I would like to take the exchange programme one step further by not only taking our players to Chennai but also bringing Gen Next Academy coaches too here and our coaches too flying into Chennai to conduct clinics. To want to set the benchmark for cricket academies in Dubai.”
Meanwhile, Shyam Bhatia announced that he is willing to distribute cricket kits to promising players in Chennai through his Cricket For Care Charity programme.
Andrew Kirsten, brother of Gary Kirsten and former head coach of Kenya and Canada team along with Frank Beckless, former Essex coach and Holland Under-19 coach conducted clinics at the ESM Academy this week.
