MUMBAI: Indian cricketers Yusuf and Irfan Pathan on Thursday launched their dream venture Cricket Academy of Pathans, which will start functioning from next month-end in their home town Baroda.

The brothers said that they had about five to seven years of active cricket still left in them.

“This has been our vision for a long time and we wanted to give something back to the game. We wanted to do something different and this academy will have two modules. The course will be for a duration of 8-9 weeks after which the child can go for the advanced course,” Irfan told reporters on Thursday.

“We will go to schools which have infrastructure and set up over there. It is not stationary and we will keep having these courses throughout the year.”

The left-arm Test paceman added that they had already identified a few schools and had been planning for it for the last six, seven months.

They plan to take the academy to three other cities by early next year and aim to have 50 academies across the country by the end of next year.

They have tied up with former India coach Greg Chappell and Cameron Tradell as chief mentors. Chappell would guide the coaches of the academy.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2014