Delhi Capitals open their first Cricket Academy in the Northeast

GUWAHATI: Delhi Capitals, the JSW-GMR co-owned Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, have opened their first DC Cricket Academy in the Northeast.

The academy has been started in collaboration with ICON Sports Academy, which began in January 2023. The official announcement about the new DC Cricket Academy was made during a press conference in Guwahati on Friday.

The announcement was made in the presence of Sourav Ganguly, Director of Cricket, Delhi Capitals; Ricky Ponting, Head Coach; Pravin Amre, Assistant Coach; Shane Watson, Assistant Coach and Jagrit Anand, Head of DC Cricket Academies along with Debashish Bora, Secretary, ICON Group of Institutes; Rajinder Singh, Joint Secretary, Assam Cricket Association; Rajdeep Ojha, Vice President, Assam Cricket Association; Naba Bhattarjee, President, Meghalaya Cricket Association and Syed Zuffri Zakaria, Head Coach, DC ICON Academies.

The DC ICON Sports Academy is the first cricket facility in Guwahati, which has an indoor training area, the Delhi Capitals informed in a release on Friday.

The academy also provides accommodation facilities and multiple turfs for several budding cricketers to hone their skills. The youngsters in the northeastern region have a great opportunity to grow as cricketers with the support of highly-qualified BCCI Level 2 coaches and world-class training facilities.

Speaking about the association with ICON Sports Academy, Sourav Ganguly, Director of Cricket, said, "The Delhi Capitals Cricket Academy in Guwahati will give many young boys and girls an opportunity to train in good gear and pitches. I am certain that we will see cricketers from the northeastern region play for India with the support of the Delhi Capitals."

Meanwhile, Syed Zuffri Zakaria, Head Coach, DC ICON Academies, spoke about the facilities in the training centre, "We have an ultra-modern indoor cricket facility at one of the ICON School premises in Guwahati. The training facility consists of four outdoor Astroturf wickets along with a small ground for students to practice fielding."

The DC Academies is an initiative of the franchise to promote cricket at the grassroots across the country. The Delhi Capitals have successfully set up 12 centres in 6 states. As many as four players are part of different IPL franchises. One of them includes ICC U-19 World Cup-winning Captain Yash Dhull, who is currently part of the Delhi Capitals squad.