Sachin Tendulkar, who announced the launch of a cricket academy, said that the Tendulkar Middlesex Global Academy (TMGA) is a giant step towards realising his dream of ensuring that talented Indian boys get state-of-the-art training facilities.

“Without doubt talented boys will get an opportunity to travel to England and train at the Middlesex Academy. There will be focus on the children coming from the less privileged society. We will try to provide them every assistance that they couldn’t afford,” Tendulkar told PTI.

It is learnt that 100% scholarship will be provided to the talented cricketers.

The TMGA is planning to have its centres across various countries including one in Tendulkar’s home city Mumbai.

Asked what made him prefer the London-based county for a tie-up, Tendulkar said: “Whenever I have been in the UK during my playing days, I have trained a lot at the Middlesex Academy (headquartered at the Lord’s). So I had a fair idea about how they function. They came up with the idea last year.”

While the focus will be on cricket, but Tendulkar wants the global academy to build a robust “club structure”, which will enable the youngsters to take up one sport even if not at professional level.

“I want to build a solid club culture and that’s why the academy will have tennis, badminton, squash courts along with swimming pool. As I have maintained, it’s time we become a sport playing nation from a sport loving one,” the legend said.

The camp for the Mumbai academy is expected to be conducted in November, once the monsoon season is over.

“When we decided to launch the academy, we wanted to start off with Mumbai but due to monsoon, we are planning to have the camp in November,” Tendulkar said.

With inputs from PTI