NCA looks like a “hospital”… Players are afraid to go: Munaf Patel | Cricket News –

Munaf Patel, former India coach and current bowling coach of Delhi Capitals, has raised serious concerns about India’s cricket ecosystem and called for urgent reforms in the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and domestic structure.Speaking on TOI Sports’ Bombay Sports Exchange Podcast, Munaf did not back down from his assessment, pointing out that the current system lacks a strong feeder pipeline and has inadvertently marginalized specialist institutions. He stressed that grassroots infrastructure, including access to physiotherapists, coaches and organized training, must be strengthened at the state level to produce consistently high quality cricketers.

Munaf has been particularly critical of the National Football League, describing it as overly focused on rehabilitation rather than overall player development.“Just look at the setup,” he said. “If you go inside the NCA, you’ll understand everything. I’ve been saying this for a long time, it needs to change 100 percent.”Tracing its origins, Munaf noted that the NCA was built in the early 2000s on the model of the Australian Center of Excellence.

”In 2000-01, when the NCA was started, Raj Singh Dungarpur and others built it by adopting the Australian Center of Excellence model. They brought their training manual and implemented it in India. Since then, Australia has updated its user guides several times, but we are still following the same guide that is 25 years old from 2000. It has not really evolved. “We hope that things will change with the new Center of Excellence, but so far that has not happened,” Manaf said during the audio broadcast.

One of his harshest criticisms was of the current role played by the National Leadership Association, which he likened to a “hospital.”“Tell me this, when I get injured, I go to NCA. Why? To get fit. It has become like a hospital. You recover, come back and go straight to the team. But who corrects your mistakes? If you are a fielder or a batsman, it is not just about fitness, my skills also need to improve,” Munaf said.Manaf also revealed that many players deny heading to the National League, but refrain from speaking out for fear of losing their livelihood.“Players are afraid to go to the NCA, no one really wants to go. But everyone keeps silent because their livelihood depends on it. No one wants to talk because it might create problems. But the higher authorities must know what is right and wrong,” he added.Highlighting the structural gaps, Munaf pointed out the lack of monitoring across India’s vast domestic circuit, “There is no system to track what is happening in domestic cricket. For that, the NCA has to be more regional.”