Dubai: With an eye to promote grassroot talent in the UAE, the International Cricket Council (ICC) Academy have launched a scholarship programme through a selection trial to pick 12 promising cricketers on Saturday at the ICC Academy at 2pm.
Will Kitchen, the ICC Academy manager, said at the launch of the new initiative: “We are going to have extensive trials for anybody wanting to come down between the age of 12 to 18 on Saturday. We will be able to secure a fully funded scholarship on an annual basis.” Even youngsters who may not get picked for the scholarship can look forward for advanced training. “Players who don’t secure scholarship but we think has got the potential will be offered place in our emerging players programme,” added Kitchen
Elaborating on the plans of the academy, Kitchen said: “The academy has been in operation for nearly seven years. It is today one of the best cricket training facilities in the world and the most attractive place for professional cricketers and elite cricketers to come and prepare and train. Now we are in a long term relationship with the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB). We want to now reach out to promotion of grassroot cricket in UAE and play a big role. We are not just a standalone academy where we coach kids for the sake of coaching kids to make some revenue.”
The academy has appointed Qasim Ali as Head of Cricket Development. “Qasim has got an incredible pedigree, having worked with Lancashire Country Cricket for a long period of time. We want to create a pathway for players who have got high potential to go into the UAE national team. We want young players to realise their ambition of playing professional cricket in UAE without having to go to overseas to do it. We would be happy if we can enthuse young players to reach their potential,” added Kitchen.
Answering to a query from Gulf News as to how different will ICC Academy be from other academies in the UAE, Kitchen said: “We have got highly qualified professional staff which set us apart from other academies. We have experts to groom the younsters like Peter Kelly, who is specialist in sport science and is the performance manager of the UAE national team programme. He will look into physical conditioning across our academy. There is also Asif Ejaz, who is linked with the Emirates Cricket Board programmes as physiotherapist. We have got a close relationship with the ECB coaching team.”
Qasim, who will be hands-on with the trainees said: “One of benefits of where we are the moment and the links we have with the ECB is that we can actually connect to their vision and identify players who can actually succeed from this academy to play international cricket.”.
