NCA should boost reserves - Sandeep Patil

Sandeep Patil, the new director of the National Cricket Academy, has said his main goal is to create a pool of reserve players to support Team India.

"NCA should be able to provide replacements," Patil said on his first day on the job in Bangalore. "The best example of that came in the last match against Australia (in the ongoing ODI series in India) where some of the players had to replaced on an emergency basis."

One concern has been the lack of transparency in players' fitness updates but Patil indicated that it wouldn't change soon. "Our duty is to attend the cases that come across us whether it is about rehabilitation or something else and then inform BCCI about it. We have some restrictions and obligations; we have been specifically instructed to hand over the information only to our parent body, the BCCI. All the cases come through BCCI and there is a proper channel which has to be followed every time."

Patil praised his predecessor Dav Whatmore for the work done during his two-year tenure and said he would continue from where he left. "He (Whatmore) has done a fantastic job but it's not him alone, it's a team effort. I would love to take forward his efforts," he said.