BCCI gets more land, may set up CoE in Bengaluru

With the aim of setting up a centre of excellence, the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Friday acquired 15 acres of land from the Karnataka government in Bengaluru.

The land is an extension of the 25 acres in Devanahalli obtained by the BCCI in May to set up the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

Amitabh Chaudhary, the BCCI acting secretary, who was here to sign the deal, confirmed the development on the sidelines of the Karnataka Premier League.

“For the last 12 years we have been looking for a separate parcel of land for NCA and the BCCI had even paid Rs 50 crore for the same back in 2005. Unfortunately this issue remained in limbo for a long time and we had begun fresh efforts last year.

“The original parcel of land was aimed at the Nandi Hills area but we opted for Devanahalli aerospace park this time around. The first 25 acres were registered with the amount which had been paid by the BCCI 12 years ago. In addition to this, we had asked for another 25 acres. I’m grateful to the government of Karnataka for agreeing to give extra 15 acres of land in the same plot. We now have an amalgamated total area of 40 acres,” Chaudhary explained.

Chaudhary said that the next course of action will be taken after discussions with the officials from the Committee of Administrators and the BCCI. “Apart from the NCA, we are looking to construct a centre of excellence. I will draft a mail to members of the NCA committee, important functionaries in the BCCI and also the CoA to identify the requirements of the NCA in the current context.

“Once we identify our requirements, we’ll have an NCA meeting, which will consider and approve that, on the basis of which we will start the appointment of a consultant. Our centre of excellence, as we will eventually know, should not be second to any. It should be a cut above the best in the world,” he offered.