On Thursday, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly said a system will be created where head coach Ravi Shastri gets to spend more time at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). The BCCI has been planning to transform NCA in Bengaluru into a state-of-the-art facility on the lines of Cricket Australia’s High-Performance Centre in Brisbane.

Ganguly along with other newly elected office-bearers met the NCA members, discussed the roadmap of NCA with the head of NCA Rahul Dravid. Ganguly, along with NCA officials, also visited the proposed land for building a new NCA facility near Bengaluru.

ALSO READ: Sachin Tendulkar Welcomes the Day-Night Test Idea

Talking about the same, Dada said, “We will create a system where Ravi’s involvement is more in the NCA till the time he is a coach. Rahul (Dravid) is there, Paras Mhambrey ( India U-19 and A coach) is there. Bharat Arun (India bowling coach) goes. We will try and make it a good center of excellence but actually NCA does a lot of work. When you go in there, you realize the hard work they put in.”

On his visit, Ganguly explained, “Basically I wanted to know about the functions of NCA. We are building a new NCA. It was a meeting for about two hours. I met him separately and wanted to find out what is the way forward. I think they do a lot of good work at the NCA. They don’t even charge a penny for BCCI using the facilities. They have done a lot of good work with the NCA and it shows in the performance of the junior and senior teams. The bigger the space the better. So hopefully the NCA will get a lot bigger.”

The proposed NCA project should be adequate to accommodate three grounds, indoor nets, administrative buildings, and the residential complex. The allotted land is believed to be on a 99-year lease.

ALSO READ: Rohit Sharma Has No Problem with Delhi Weather

The NCA originally envisioned as a nursery of talent has in recent years become a rehabilitation center for injured players.