{"id":11952,"date":"2026-04-15T10:49:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=11952"},"modified":"2026-04-15T10:49:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:49:41","slug":"130279034-cms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=11952","title":{"rendered":"NCA feels more like a ‘Hospital’… players are fearful of going: Munaf Patel | Cricket News – The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Munaf Patel (Screengrab)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Former India pacer and current Delhi Capitals bowling coach Munaf Patel<\/a> has raised serious concerns about India\u2019s cricketing ecosystem, calling for urgent reforms in the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and the domestic structure.Speaking on TOI Sports\u2019 Bombay Sports Exchange Podcast, Munaf did not hold back in his assessment, suggesting that the current system lacks a strong feeder pathway and has inadvertently sidelined specialised institutions. He stressed that grassroots infrastructure, including access to physiotherapists, trainers, and structured coaching, must be strengthened at the state level to produce quality cricketers consistently. <\/p>\n

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Bombay Sport Exchange: Munaf Patel on Gautam Gambhir, Virat vs Bumrah & Indian bowling.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Munaf was particularly critical of the NCA, describing it as overly focused on rehabilitation rather than holistic player development.\u201cJust look at the setup,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you go inside the NCA, you\u2019ll understand everything. I\u2019ve been saying this for a long time, it needs to change, 100 percent.\u201dTracing its origins, Munaf pointed out that the NCA was built in the early 2000s based on Australia\u2019s Centre of Excellence model. ”Back in 2000-01, when the NCA started, Raj Singh Dungarpur and others built it by adopting Australia\u2019s Centre of Excellence model. They brought their coaching manual and implemented it in India. Since then, Australia has updated their manuals multiple times, but we are still following the same 25-year-old manual from 2000. It hasn\u2019t really evolved. Hopefully, with the new Centre of Excellence, things might change, but so far, that hasn\u2019t happened,” Munaf said during podcast. One of his sharpest criticisms was of the NCA\u2019s current role, which he likened to a \u201chospital.\u201d”Tell me this, when I get injured, I go to the NCA. Why? To get fit. It has become more like a hospital. You recover, come back, and go straight into the team. But who corrects your mistakes? If I\u2019m a bowler or batter, it\u2019s not just about fitness, my skills also need improvement,” Munaf said.Munaf also revealed that many players deny to go to the NCA, but refrain from speaking out due to fear of livelihood.”Players are fearful of going to the NCA, nobody really wants to go. But everyone stays quiet because their livelihood depends on it. No one wants to speak up as it could create trouble. However, the higher authorities should know what\u2019s right and wrong,” he added.Highlighting structural gaps, Munaf pointed out the lack of monitoring across India\u2019s vast domestic circuit, ”There\u2019s no system tracking what\u2019s happening in domestic cricket. For that, the NCA needs to be more regional,” he said.<\/div>\n\n

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Munaf Patel (Screengrab) Former India pacer and current Delhi Capitals bowling coach Munaf Patel has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29047,29048,2357,28959,29046,29049],"class_list":["post-11952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cricket-reforms","tag-grassroots-infrastructure","tag-india-cricket","tag-munaf-patel","tag-national-cricket-academy","tag-player-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}