From 40 Acres Of Barren Land To Sprawling BCCI CoE: How Jay Shah And Co Turned Dream To Reality
Standing on the cusp of its second anniversary, the state-of-the-art Centre of Excellence here came to a fruition after the efforts put on a war-footing by BCCI officials led by its former secretary Jay Shah.
Standing on the cusp of its second anniversary, the state-of-the-art Centre of Excellence here came to a fruition after the efforts put on a war-footing by BCCI officials led by its former secretary Jay Shah. Incumbent secretary Devajit Saikia said Shah, who is now heading the International Cricket Council, went to great lengths to bring every official onto the same page to complete the mission. "He took everybody on board in BCCI's Apex Council and made a firm decision that this establishment (CoE) has to be done on a war footing, and we need to move on from the old, temporary arrangement of National Cricket Academy," Saikia told select media at the BCCI CoE.
"Jay came here personally on several occasions to clear all the legal hurdles to start the work, because a lot of regulations are to be followed once we have to start a proper project and on top of that, we have to regularise the land." Regularising the land offered the seasoned administrators the "biggest challenge", said Saikia.
"That was the biggest challenge, because this kind of land, 40 acres, was lying idle, and a lot of people wanted to take it back. So everything had to be cleared before the work started from 14th February 2022," he added.
"But the transition was a challenge. Roger Binny was there, and we have taken the help of VVS Laxman who by that time, was part of this scheme." Laxman recollected how he moved to Bengaluru from Hyderabad to be part of a long journey.
"In 2021, when Jay and then BCCI president Sourav (Ganguly) reached out to me, saying that Rahul (Dravid) is moving to the Indian team as the head coach, and we want that continuity.
"It was a tough decision for me. But as a cricketer, I always thought that it's the responsibility of former cricketers who benefited through this great game to contribute back to the game. And with that intention, obviously, I moved to Bangalore in December 2021," he said.
The former India batter also remembered how Shah guided the entire process.
"In the span of close to two years, the entire infrastructure was up and running. And huge credit to Jay, because he was the secretary of the BCCI and I myself seen firsthand how much interest he used to take in various meetings we used to have with the architects, with the L&T team, to make sure that each and every aspect of the COE, or then NCA, is taken care of.
"And it's great to see that, you know, the vision was translated into reality. And I think all leaders have vision. But the vision will only bear the fruit when it's translated into reality. And that reality is what we've seen in 2024, November," he said.
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