Ever since former Indian skipper, Sourav Ganguly has become the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India [BCCI], he has been the frontrunner in bringing out changes quit fast- both on and off the field. One of the first things Ganguly did was to meet the new NCA director Rahul Dravid and one of the projects that they discussed was the creation of the new Centre of Excellence [COE] to replace the traditional NCA which is currently functioning under the Karnataka State Cricket Association campus.

In recent times, the NCA grabbed the headline for all the wrong reasons. But, the work of the COE will go beyond the usual tasks performed by the NCA as it will revise its sports medicine approach as it aims to form an alliance with the leading medical institutions.

The COE, which is expected to be made at a whopping amount of ₹500 Crore will have four grounds where the pitches will be made with the objective of replicating the varied conditions found in countries like England, Australia, and New Zealand.

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As per the quotes in Times of India, one of the BCCI sources said, “There can’t be any specific amount assigned to the project. But going by the initial blueprint that’s in place, it is estimated that the project will cost minimally around ₹500 crores. There will be improvisations to the blueprint. The project is running six months late but with the new BCCI regime in place, work has begun in full swing. BCCI expects the CoE to be functional in another two years. NCA director Rahul Dravid is actively involved.”

The senior BCCI official also added that there will be a lot of work put into the preparation of the pitches. He added that various types of clay and spoil will be employed in order to replicate the conditions of Australia and other countries. He also revealed that the grounds can be used for both domestic tournaments as well as for the warm-up games for the visiting sides.

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He also said that they are considering the idea of having an NCA team. The BCCI has already got the athlete monitor system and bio-mechanical bowling coach.