Super Kings Academy
Author – S. Prabhu.
In the last two decades, a plethora of cricket academies have come in Chennai primarily catering to teenage cricketers in the local area but the one launched recently is set to become the biggest in the state. After extensive ground work, Super Kings Academy, run by Super Kings Ventures Pvt. Ltd., launched its Coaching facilities in Chennai and Salem in the first week of April 2022. Within the first six months of the launch, the academy has added close to 400 students. As part of the immediate expansion, academies will be launched in Tirunelveli, Coimbatore and Hosur in 2023. Super Kings Academy is also looking at Satellite Centers to cater to high demand. The long term target is to set up 100 academies over the next five years through the franchise partnership route with the franchisees investing up to Rs. 50Lakhs in the initial phase.
The academy sees itself offering holistic coaching methods with assessments and analysis, planning and execution, visual based coaching, skill development and interactive and reflective methodology being part of their model.
Louis Mariano, who ran the Elite Cricket Academy for almost two decades, has been assigned the responsibility to manage the cricket activities at the Super Kings Academy while George John will take care of the expansion and growth plans.
CEO Super Kings Academy
Super Kings Academy aims to transform cricket coaching in all the Districts in Tamil Nadu.
We are well poised to create more academies in rural areas – KS Viswanathan, CEO, CSK
Coaching Details
Age Group
Students at the Super Kings Academy are classified under different age group categories – U10/U12 (beginners), U14, U16 and U19 going up to 22 years. There are weekend sessions (2days), weekend +1day sessions and ‘5 days in a week’ options available for students.
Infrastructure
At the Salem center, there are 12 nets (10 Turf + 2 Astro Turf) while at the Drome Facility in Chennai, there are 5 indoor units and 16 outdoor. The academy is looking to move into a facility within Salem city. In Chennai, it has picked up the Pebble city ground for matches, which will be a regular feature for the students.
The Super Kings Academy has fitness trainers, video analysts, a Gym and Cafeteria. The students will also undergo fielding and fitness drills. Currently, the coach to students ratio is at 1:18.
Fee Structure
The five days a week model comes at a monthly fee of Rs. 6500 (including GST), while the two days package costs close to Rs. 3000 a month in Chennai. A lot of the net sessions will also be played under the lights.
Coaches
While former Ranji players S Suresh, Sreekumar Nair and DJ Gokulakrishnan are donning the roles of the coaches currently in Chennai, Super Kings Academy is likely to appoint a Head Coach and a Senior Coach soon. At the Salem center, currently located 30 kms from the city, KB Arun Karthik is heading the Coaching unit with MK Sivakumar and Amarnath as the Senior Coaches. There are 11 assistant coaches in Salem and 13 in Chennai currently.
KS Viswanathan, CEO, CSK, that has invested in Super Kings Ventures Pvt. Ltd told this writer that the first six months of the Super Kings Academy have been very interesting “George John and Louis Mariano with their experience and knowledge have been doing a wonderful job. In this initial phase, we have learnt a lot on how to improve our coaching methods. With this experience, we are well poised to create more academies in rural areas.”
A strong Coaching Curriculum
He credits former TN all-rounder DJ Gokulakrishnan for developing a strong curriculum in which Classroom and Match Simulation sessions are an integral part of the coaching. Gokulakrishnan had been the TN bowling coach for several years and has also been involved with TNPL teams since inception. Viswanathan said that the young coaches have been doing a good job based on the coaching curriculum developed by Gokul. “The interest showed by the kids and the number of boys and girls joining the academy has been very encouraging.”
Coaching In Salem
While Chennai has been on expected lines, Louis Mariano is delighted with the response in Salem and sees great potential to develop cricketing talent in the districts “Despite the Salem facility being away from the city, we have received a huge response. We expect this to increase manifold when we move into a facility within the city. We will be launching our Sankar Nagar facility in Tirunelveli shortly and can see the demand surging there as well.”
Coaching Girl Students
Louis Mariano
Louis is surprised with the kind of enquiries coming in from young girls and the support they have been getting from their parents “Women’s cricket is on the rise. That can be seen from the keenness of young girls to join the academy. We even had a 22 year old girl reaching out to us recently with an interest to learn at our Chennai academy. Particularly pleasing is the fact that the parents are supporting their daughter’s interests in cricket. We see this demand shooting up in the future especially with the kind of opportunities that is now on offer in women’s cricket.”
Super Kings Academy On The Raise
Match exposure – A Differentiator
Eight Clubs have been taken up this season in different divisions (including 6th division) of the TNCA league to provide league match exposure for these students. At least half of the playing XI in these 8 clubs will be players from the Super Kings Academy. One of the school boys, Jayant Balamurugan, who joined the academy, has already scored a century in his very first match this season for Gandhi CC in the 5th division. Opening the batting, he scored 117 off just 138 balls helping his team win.
Students are also provided extensive match opportunities by way of inter academy matches and even intra academy games (Salem vs Chennai centers). With more centers coming up, Louis expects competitive intra academy matches in the future.
Within the next three months, Super Kings Academy will host two overseas teams – one from the UK in October and another from South Africa in December. “Playing against these overseas clubs will be a first of its kind experience that kids in the city have not experienced so far. This is a big differentiator for us” says Louis.
Brand CSK Advantage
Viswanathan says that CSK cricketers like Deepak Chahar and Robin Uthappa have visited the camp in recent months and that has given a lot of confidence to the students. The possibility of CSK cricketers visiting the camp at regular intervals will be yet another differentiator for the students. In fact, CSK is setting a huge state of the art practice facility in Navalur that is likely to be fully functional next year.
The Biggest Academy Expansion in TN
After the surge in coaching academies in the city since the turn of the century, the launch this summer of the Super Kings Academy is certainly the biggest. They are also looking to set up Satellite facilities in locations where there is high demand. These centers will have 4 Nets and offer coaching to a limited number of students. If their expansion plans are anything to go by, it is likely that thousands of kids will make the Super Kings Academy their coaching destination with their eyes set on playing for CSK alongside the greats of Indian Cricket.
With its financial strength and through franchise partnerships, Super Kings Academy will bring in scale that one has not seen in TN in the past. Their aim is to change the face of districts cricket offering a ‘full-fledged coaching system’ across the Tier 2 and 3 locations in the state. “We are confident that we will be able to transform cricket in the districts within the next five years” says Louis Mariano, who is anchoring the academy on the ground.