Is a tie-up between MRF Pace Foundation and National Cricket Academy on the cards?

Glenn McGrath is the director of the MRF Pace Foundation

M.Senthilnathan, the chief coach of the MRF Pace Foundation, has made a presentation to the men in-charge of the National Cricket Academy at Bangalore. The presentation elucidating the facilities available at the foundation,was made in an attempt to convince the officials about going forward together.

Going by the reaction of the NCA officials, it is believed that they have been impressed by the presentation but the final decision has to be made by the working committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Senthilnathan, looking convinced at how things have gone about, revealed that the BCCI did not give them enough time to make their presentation.

He said: “We’re happy with the way the presentation went about but whether to have a tie-up is the BCCI’s decision. I understand they had a lot of decisions to make at the meeting yesterday and they gave us a little time to make our case. We’ll wait for them to come back to us.”

An anonymous NCA official was quoted as saying by the Mumbai Mirror, “It is not only about bowling academy and training for the pace bowlers. The foundation has a rehabilitation centre and also facilities to coach the coaches. So, it should be a good deal.”

Another official seemed to believe that BCCI will, in any case, have to shell out money for the training of the Indian pacers and hence it would be advisable to do so on a well established foundation.

He said: “We sure will have to pay but we would anyway have spent money on training the pacers at the NCA. So why not use quality facility which is readily available.”

Glenn McGrath was appointed as the director of MRF Pace Foundation in September 3, 2012, succeeding Dennis Lillee who served at the academy for 25 years.