THE NEST

The V B Cricket Academy was started in 1997, with a turf wicket inaugurated by Rahul Dravid at Vivekanandha College Grounds, Mylapore.  In 1998, it was subsequently shifted to Gurunanak College Campus at Velachery.  The coaching centre at Gurunanak College campus has three turf wickets with luxuriant Australian grass, a half-length concrete strip and a mini concrete strip for juniors.  This facility was inaugurated by Bobby Simpson, former Australian captain and coach, in September 1998.

An idea that has been three years in the making, ‘The Nest’ is the brainchild of former Tamil Nadu opener, V B Chandrasekhar.  V B Chandrasekhar played eight one-day internationals between 1989 – 90 and holds the record for the fastest hundred in first class cricket (He scored 100 off just 56 balls against Rest of India in the company of Kris Srikkanth).    He has also captained Tamil Nadu.

VB, as he is called, desired to give the youngsters under his tutelage a thorough grounding in the basics, coupled with lots of match practice. This was possible only at a residential coaching centre.  And so ‘The Nest’ was born.  Situated 25 kms from Chennai at Pudupakkam, it is a residential coaching complex with a full-fledged turf ground.  It has nine different types of wickets, topped with different types of grass.  The foundation of each wicket is prepared using various compositions of soft soil and hard material.  It has infrastructure to house around 25 trainees every weekend throughout the year.  During the summer the trainees will stay full time at the centre.  ‘The Nest’ will soon have an indoor coaching centre, a library, gym and transportation facilities for the trainees.  

The unique aspect at ‘The Nest’ is that there are no facilities for net practice. Speaking to www.chennaibest.com, VB said, “I want the guys to have match practice and that is why all the wickets are on the ground.  I want them to experience what many cricketers like myself lost out on.  The need of the hour is fast and bouncy tracks and we have got them at ‘The Nest’.  The young kids will gain experience from different kinds of tracks and also get that experience in match situations.”

 “There is an interesting story behind the name that we chose for the centre.  My brother Chandramouli, (based in California) and I used to chat about this idea and we were toying around with the name.  We were calling it the nets, when one day while chatting he asked ‘How is the nest?’ meaning our home.  This struck us, since it went with our idea of making ‘The Nest’ a home for the trainees.  And that is why we chose it”

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