THE hustle and bustle normally associated with the Mujumdar Cricket Academy (MCA) ground in heart of the city in Vasant Nagar throughout the year, that was missing due to the lockdown for over eight months, is back. Sunil Mujumdar, Director MCA, informed in detail about resumption of cricket at his academy. “Since we are affiliated to the Vidarbha Cricket Association and strictly follow the rules and regulations set by the body, we had no action till VCA was closed down. We started activity on our ground on the very day, activities at VCA resumed,” said Mujumdar while interacting with the ‘The Hitavada’ on Wednesday.

 

Mujumdar, who could be seeing donning the cricket whites all through the year, was proud to have Sulakshan Kulkarni as the head coach and a number of former Vidarbha greats as specialists coaches. “Services of Kulkarni, who is gem of a coach, will be open to all Vidarbha players. Kulkarni arrived in the city just before the lockdown and with the entire thing closed down, Kulkarni was staying in the city only. He is available from Monday to Friday in one session from 3 to 5.30 pm. “We have former skipper Pritam Gandhe as spin coach. Speedster Sandeep Singh will be incharge of training upcoming fast bowlers while the duo of Amit Deshpande and Vivek Naidu will be the batting coaches in our totally professional set-up. “We also have Akola’s Pravin Muley, who shaped the players like Atharva Taide, Darshan Nalkande, Aditya Thakare and others, with us” said Mujumdar.

 

As VCA has stated its fitness camps only for senior players, MCA is also not allowing players under the age of 16 for health reasons. “Safety of players is our prime concern. We have started coaching activities with a restricted number. Also, presently we are not admitting any players in Under-16 group as young players are more at risk against the virus,” Mujumdar said. On the precautions taken, Mujumdar said, “We scan all the players for temperate and they enter the academy only after being fully sanitised.”