[In Pictures] Jay Shah lays foundation stone for BCCI's new training facilities in North East

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah laid the foundation stone for "state-of-the-art" indoor facilities in the North East. This will provide year-round training options for cricketers from Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim on Monday.

The facilities will be based in Shillong, Itanagar, Kohima, Aizawl, Imphal and Gangtok. Earlier, due to a lack of options, cricketers from these regions were required to travel to nearby states for training, especially during monsoon.

"Honored to have laid the foundation stone for BCCI’s upcoming state-of-the-art indoor training facilities in the North East!," Shah's official statement on X said. "Our cricketers from six states - Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim—will soon benefit from world-class indoor nets, indoor swimming pools and fitness centres for year-round training options. This, along with the launch of the new pavillion in Mizoram, are big steps towards our vision to enhance cricket infrastructure in the region, exciting times ahead!"

In 2018, the BCCI also created the North-East Cricket Development Committee, which is now being headed by the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), Avishek Dalmiya.

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"We have invested more than 250 crore to improve NCA" - Jay Shah

Apart from these measures, work is ongoing to improve the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Shah laid the foundation stone for that too in 2022, on a 40-acre land in Devanahalli Taluk, near the Bengaluru airport.

The new facility is set to include a 16,000 square feet gymnasium, 40 practice pitches, 243 rooms, an open-air theatre, pharmacy, courier-dispatch facility, bank, ATM and salon, among various other sporting and non-sporting amenities.

The secretary recently spoke about the same in an interview with The Times of India, saying:

"When I took over, my first decision was to strengthen the National Cricket Academy. We have invested more than Rs 250 crore to improve it and we hope to open the world class, new facility this July or August."

The BCCI is next major assignment is the smooth execution of the IPL 2024 playoffs.