Former India captain Mithali Raj has been appointed the mentor of Women's Cricket Operations of the Andhra Cricket Association. She will be scouting the talented cricketers in the state and grooming them during her stint with the ACA. ACA Secretary S. Satish Babu confirmed the development and also highlighted the steps they are taking to promote women's cricket in the state.
"Mithali has signed a three-year contract with us with the specific objective of scouting and grooming young talent across the State. We are really happy that she has taken up this responsibility which is part of our efforts to give a new direction to women’s cricket," he said while speaking to Sportstar.
He informed that ACA is setting up a High-Performance Academy in Anantapur for women's cricketers where around 80 girls from different age groups will be selected and trained for 365 days. The players will be taken care of in the academy with special, skilled support staff hired.
"We are setting up a full-fledged High-Performance Academy at Anantapur for women cricketers where initially we will be picking 80 girls from different age groups and will be given 365 days training combining academics. The Academy will have not only qualified support staff taking care of the cricketing aspects but also medical personnel for the girls.
"Obviously, we don’t expect any immediate results as this is a long-term project wherein the emphasis will be equally on physical conditioning and skills," Satish Babu added. Moreover, Mithali Raj has also suggested ACA to organise matches regularly for Under-15 players against different state teams so that the women cricketers become skilful and more confident early in their career.
Meanwhile, Satish has also revealed the High Perfomance Academy exclusively for men will be built at Vizianagaram where even the national players will also be able to train. "We are focussing a lot on rural talent and teams will go to interiors of the State to scout and groom talent. A critical review will be done by Mithali’s team on who should be focussed for long-term training and exposure," he added.
