Pathan brothers share the idea behind launching their own academy

Cricketers Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan ventured into coaching in 2014 through their initiative, the Cricket Academy of Pathans (CAP), to tackle lack of proper coaching in the country.

The academy that started off in their hometown Vadodara and is now based in 11 other cities, aims to provide world-class coaching with international standard curriculum curated by great Australian coaches - Greg Chappel and Cameron Tradell.

The academy has also partnered PitchVision, a UK-based state of the art cricket coaching technology, which enables the coaches to track the overall progress of the students on a day to day basis.

In an interview with Moneycontrol, Yusuf Pathan talks about the institute and their future plans. Here are the excerpts:

Q: How did you come up with the idea of CAP?

A: We brothers had a dream and we both thought that there should be an academy were the young kids can have whole packages for getting trained in the sport of cricket. We both knew the sport very well, so in the year 2014, we launched it. We started it first in our home-town Vadodara.

Now we have expanded and are now in around 11 cities such as New Delhi, Noida, Bengaluru, Pune, Patna, Surat, and others.

Q: How is the response from people for your cricket academy?

A: The response is good. A good number of young kids of age 6-21 are enrolling in the academy. We have a good response because we hire BCCI Level I and II certified coaches. In terms of fulfilling the gap of cricket coaches in the country, we run a programme for them. Along with students, we are also training coaches for the same. We are training the coaches and they are trained according to the coaching style of Greg Chapell. He is one of the mentors in the academy.

Q: How long is the training module for the students in the academy?

A: There are seven modules and each module is for four months. We welcome female cricketers and we give them 50 percent in scholarships when they join the academy.

Q: How will the investment of Rs 2 crore be used?

A: The investment will be used for expanding the academy. The amount will be used to launch the academy in new places and it will be utilised in 12 months.

Q: Who are the investors in the academy?

A: There are no other investors. It is me and my brother Irfan who have invested in it. We work on the franchise model and we work with the stakeholders who have this franchise.

Q: How are sports-celebrities like yourself guiding the young talent in the sport of cricket?

A: Youngsters learn from their seniors and friends, they teach each other and share the knowledge of what you have gained and this cycle goes on. So I believe that whatever I learned from my experience in the field should be shared to the young generation and it feels good that you are giving back to the society and teaching them through the experience and knowledge of the sport.

Q: Will you expand the institute to other sports?

A: No, we brothers are better at cricket and we know the sport and that's how we can teach through our experience. But, one can see kids in India like sports and want to play. We will think about it but right now we will focus on cricket. So we are not just playing cricket but with the help of our experience, we are sharing it through the academy. It's easier because we know cricket more than any other sports. We have different ideas about it and we will see how we can work it out in the future.