Coaches should be provided with proper training: Irfan Pathan

Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan, who is spending quality time with the young aspiring cricketers and providing them training apart from guiding them and sharing his rich experience, feels that there should be a proper training for coaches so that a particular youngster gets groomed in a proper manner. Irfan said that they should be provided with the technicalities of the sport.

Irfan along with his brother Yusuf Pathan, who is well known for his big-hittings at the international level, inaugurated their fourth cricket academy, this one in Surat. The Cricket Academy of Pathans (CAP) has so far been launched at Raipur, Port Blair and Lunawada.

CAP will be launched in five more cities in India in the next couple of months. CAP intends to have around 20 academies across the country by the end of this year. CAP curriculum entails of two modules i.e. ‘ Coaching the Coaches’ and ‘ Coaching the Kids’.

Both the Pathan brothers believe that the need of the hour is to strengthen the ‘backbone’ of cricket training and development. Unlike many academies, the CAP puts a lot of stress on ensuring effective guidance to the coaches, who in return play a vital part in grooming the younger lot.

The academy has also roped in PitchVision to keep a check on students playing a match. This technology bridges the gap between Irfan, Yousuf, coaches and students. With technological partner in place, PitchVision facilitates video conferencing service to connect students with Pathan brothers, Chappell and Tradell.

Talking about the ‘Coaching with Coaches’ module, Irfan, while talking to ANI, said, “It is very important because when we were growing up as a kid, me and my brother, one thing was there, there were a lot of academies where they had coaches who had very little knowledge of the training.”

“Obviously, as time goes, you get better but there were a lot of coaches who had minimum knowledge about the proper technicalities of the game, the whole knowledge of the process of the kid’s growth as well. So, when we were growing up, we knew what’s required in the future. It’s always been at the back of our minds as well to have coaches to be trained. They are the main ones which are going to take the academy forward. So, that’s how the idea came up,” he added.

So far, 350 students have enrolled in CAP, and with the academy promising to come up in five more cities, the numbers will surely grow big.