Sports Reporter :
Inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) winners Rajasthan Royals (RR) eyeing to open an academy in a bid to broaden their base in Bangladesh, said RR chairman Ranjit Barthakur on Thursday.
‘We want to make a Royal (Rajasthan) academy in Bangladesh,’ Ranjit Barthakur told reporters on Thursday.
‘The plan is yet to be finalized but we are thinking about it which can feed the whole IPL from here,’ he said.
‘Rajasthan Royals are excited to have Mustafiz. We hope to have him throughout the IPL but we also don’t want him to skip national duties.’ He said.
”We would like to send our scouts to discover cricketers from the grassroots, to prepare them by honing their skills so that both of the bodies (RR and BCB) can utilise their talents and skills,” he added.
Barthakur along with few other members of the RR family paid a surprise visit to Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) to see the infrastructure available at the home of cricket.
Barthakur said that they are eyeing to have an exchange program that will suit both the board.
‘I am here to see how we can have an exchange program, for cricket, so that we can flourish jointly, as the eastern Himalayan territory, rather than territories of India and Bangladesh,” he said,
Barthakur said that they are focusing to create a fan base of Royals in Bangladesh.
”One of the things is, our fan base here, is quite interesting, after Kolkata and Chennai, our fan base is number three in Bangladesh, so we want to develop the fan base in Bangladesh and also in North-East India. So that’s why we want to promote that to get grassroots cricketers from the villages, much more than from cities,” he said.
