By Baidurjo Bhose

New Delhi, Oct 31 (IANS): The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), while announcing Tufan Ghosh's appointment as National Cricket Academy (NCA) in December 2017, had spoken of his achievements and how Ghosh was instrumental in setting up Columbia Asia and its services from scratch. Yet, his presentation to the new office bearers of the BCCI with regards to the new NCA at the Arebinnamangala village near the Aerospace Park region in Bengaluru had no mention of budget.

Speaking to IANS, one of the board officials present at the meeting said that Ghosh provided no budget with regards to the new project which is expected to have five grounds, a squash court, an olympic-size swimming pool and a residential complex among other things.

"No, there was nothing about the budget and it was about what all they are planning and how they have conceptualised the whole thing," the official said.

Asked about the next step of action, the office bearer said: "Now we will have to take it forward and discuss it with other stakeholders and take their opinion also before we take a final call. The plan was to take their idea of how they are looking to go about it. We will now look at the other factors involved and take a call. Definitely, we have to work on this on a fast speed and hopefully in the next three months, we should be able to set the ball rolling."

Another board official found the whole turn of events amusing and said that the budget is generally the first thing that is put on the table when such a huge project is discussed and here there was nothing even close to an approximate figure that was given to those present.

"Well, when you sit down to discuss such an important project, one would presume that you would start with the expenses and the kind of investment that would go into bringing up this state-of-the-art new academy. While there were talks about having five grounds, a squash court, a swimming pool and a residential complex, there was nothing constructive when it came to the budget," he said.

While announcing Ghosh's appointment, former acting Secretary Amitabh Choudhary had said in the media release: "Ghosh will play a key role in setting up the facility and creating a centre of excellence."

Hopefully the new office bearers under the able leadership of President Sourav Ganguly will be able to turn the dream of the new NCA into a reality soon.