In a move to widen the net and nurture young cricketing talent in India, the BCCI sponsored National Cricket Academy on Sunday formally started its zonal branches in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Kanpur.

NCA sources said 20 players had been picked for each zone - West, North, East, South and Central. In addition, the second batch at the one-year old NCA in Bangalore also commenced training today.

The players are aged under 18, and the NCA's move to expand is seen as training budding talent in all parts of the country. The immediate task appears to be to produce a team that can win the Under-19 World Cup, scheduled to be held in New Zealand next year.

"It's a great honour and I am looking forward to the assignment", the new Head Coach of NCA and former India medium pacer, Balwinder Singh Sandhu said. The focus would be on fitness and fielding, he had indicated yesterday.

NCA Chairman, Raj Singh Dungarpur, former NCA Director, Hanumant Singh and his successor Brijesh Patel have already held a series of informal meetings with head coaches and others regarding coaching matters, as well as uniform pattern and standardisation of training at all the Academies.

Former India stumper Syed Kirmani will be the new head coach of the South Zone academy, as the original choice, K Srikkanth, reportedly expressed his inability to take the job due to prior commitments.

The other head coaches are: Yashpal Sharma (North), Arun Lal (East), Nari Contractor (West) and Kailash Ghattani (Central).

The Chairman of the National Cricket Academy Committee, Raj Singh Dungarpur, who inaugurated the West Zone Cricket Academy (WZCA) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday said he was confident of producing quality players from the present batch.

Dungarpur told PTI that the boys in the Academy were really talented and it was the coaches' job to tap them. The immediate aim of the Academy would be to prepare the boys with the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand in mind.

"In fact, I spoke to the Board president, Dr A C Muthiah, yesterday and requested him to send the Under-19 squad at least fifteen days before the World Cup starts and the president responded very positively", he added.

"I was in Bangalore yesterday and had a very long chat with the Indian junior team coach and former Test allrounder Roger Binny, who too felt that the junior squad should be sent to New Zealand well in advance so that the players could get acclimatised to the weather and nature of the wickets over there", Dungarpur added.

"Former Test stars Nari Contractor, Hemant Kanitkar, Kiran More and Lalchand Rajput are the four coaches while Vaibhav Daga is the physiotherapist cum trainer", Dungarpur said.

"We have also appointed Dr S H Marathe as the nutrition expert and Anil Joshi as yoga trainer", the former Board president said. The Garware Club House has extended the facility to use the swimming pool, rooms and health club to the trainees.

The list of 20 trainees: Parthiv Patel, Swapnil Patel, Siddharth Trivedi and Timil Patel (Gujarat), Vimal Joshi, Yusuf Pathan, Rakesh Solanki, Irfan Pathan and Hardik Parmar (Baroda), Sahil Kukreja, Paul Valthaty, Vinit Indulkar, Arif Sunasara and Gautam Yadav (Mumbai), Padmanabh Jadeja, Uday Karavadra and Nikhil Rathod ( Saurashtra), Kiran Adhav, Yogesh Takwale and Manoj Palkhade (Maharashtra).

Meanwhile the North Zone Cricket Academy was inaugurated on Tuesday by DDCA patron Subhash Chopra in Delhi.

The 20 selected boys will undergo a two-month training, with a session each in the morning and evening everyday, under head coach Yashpal Sharma, vice-president of Delhi and District Cricket Association, Khanna told PTI.

Khanna said the controversy over inclusion of former Test cricketer Gursharan Singh as one of the coaches was resolved after NCA Chairman Raj Singh Dungarpur intervened and cleared his appointment along with other coaches Chetan Sharma, Rajinder Amarnath and Surinder Khanna.

The appointments of Captain K B Dogra (physical trainer), Dr D K Chauhan (physician), Dr Anmol Maria (orthopaedist), Dr Charu Jain (dietician), Sunil Kumar Chawla (yoga expert), and Dr A D Nayyar (psychiatrist) were also confirmed, Khanna said.

© PTI