Post-Covid innings in Ahmedabad: Cricket coaching hits fever pitch

AHMEDABAD: With the pandemic retired hurt though not out yet, summer vacation this year has turned out to be quite exciting for young cricket enthusiasts after two long years.
Restrictions eased, cricket coaching camps in the city are buzzing with children and the batches are fully packed.

Dipen Gandhi, manager of Sardar Patel stadium in Navrangpura, said that the AMC trains children on five practice pitches while the remaining five have been leased out to private coaches who run their own camps.
“About 50 students train at the AMC pitches in the morning and an equal number trains in the evening. The numbers have more than doubled for the summer vacation camps,” he said.
Groundsman Harshad Nayak said that the rush is expected to continue until the beginning of monsoon. “The batches are normally packed during summer and winter, but this year, the rush for practice is greater because the last two summers were lost to Covid,” he said.
Across the city though, there are about 35 cricket coaching centres.
Summer camps have come up at several open plots of land and on playgrounds at educational institutions where coaches charge between Rs 1000 and Rs 2000 per month.
The training session is held for about three hours in the morning and another three hours in the evening. Most of these centres are running at full capacity this summer.
Nilesh Macwan, whose sons Darren (17) and Ashley (19) train every evening, said he had difficulties making arrangements for cricket coaching in the past two years. With Covid restrictions eased, the boys get to practise the game every day.