Asian Cricket Council inaugurate Centre of Excellence in Dharamsala

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) inaugurates Centre of Excellence in Dharamsala to help the upcoming players and coaches from the subcontinent, and a few associate nations. This is ACC’s second step towards renewal plans, which was put into action in October. ACC CEO Ashraful Haq had said that they would start winding down operations in April and the 32-year-old organisation would split up in June. Anurag Thakur, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary, came up with several ways to keep ACC continue its operations. The Centre of Excellence is based in Dharamsala, which is the home ground to Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), where Thakur is the President. The ACC press release mentioned that the Centre facilities features modern indoor and outdoor facilities and different equipments which will allow the coaches and sports staff to enhance the development of International cricketers and help them to face various international competitions in the future, according to espncricinfo.com. READ:ICC World T20 2016: Hosting 10 matches in Dharamsala proud moment for Himachal Pradesh, says HPCA official The Centre President Sidath Wettimuny added, “This will be a significant move in the effort of making the ACC a more dynamic, vibrant and robust body, which will help rapidly promote & develop the sport of cricket in the Asian region.” Thakur provided full support on behalf of BCCI for this Centre and encouraged India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to send their ‘A’ teams to play with Associate nations like Nepal, Afghanistan and Oman. READ: Anurag Thakur: Dharamsala right place to host high-voltage India-Pakistan match in ICC World T20 2016 Around last week, BCCI signed an MoU that allowed Afghanistan to utilise the Shahid Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex, which is 40 kilometres away from Delhi, as their home ground. For the World T20 qualifier, Nepal was trained in Dharamsala, due to earthquakes in April. The ACC held a conference for 49 coaches from 18 countries at Bangladesh in October.