The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday announced a comprehensive and busy National Cricket Academy Programme 2019-2020, which will commence next week and culminate next year around the same time. The NCA Programme 2019-2020 has been broken into four different categories, namely: Player Skills and Training, Youth/Talent Hunt and Skills Training, Game Education Programme, and Players Development at Regional and High Performance Centres. Under the Player Skills and Training Programme, the National Cricket Academy has planned nine different activities that are targeted and focused at enhancing the cricketing and personal skills of the Under-13, Under-16 and Under-19 cricketers. Under the Youth/Talent and Skills Training, five U13 and U16 tournaments have been scheduled apart from the talent hunt exercise, wide-ranging courses for the emerging coaches have been incorporated in the Game Education Programme, while follow-up programmes for the teenage cricketers will be held under the Player Development at Regional and High Performance Centres programme. The year-long activity will kick off at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore on Monday, 17 June, when the Pakistan U16 squad and reserves for the tour of Bangladesh will assemble in the first phase of the 12-week session until 13 July. In the second phase of this programme, Pakistan U19 side will arrive on 15 July at the back of their tour of South Africa on an eight-week course. This is to ensure there is no interruption in their preparation for next year’s ICC U19 Cricket World Cup South Africa 2020. Curtain will fall on the NCA Programme 2019-2020 with the four-week Emerging Players Fitness Training Camp in Lahore in June 2020. PCB Director – Academies, Mudassar Nazar, said: “A robust, well thought out and detailed year-long programme has been developed keeping in mind the strategic objective of the PCB which is to continue to invest and focus on our future cricket. Over the next 12 months, we will impart coaching and training with an aim to identify, prepare and develop the next generation of cricketers so that they are as best prepared as practically possible to carry forward the good work of past and present generation of Pakistan cricketers. The National Cricket Academy is a finishing school for Pakistan’s future stars. This centre of excellence has produced current players such as Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Imam-ul-Haq, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, while the recently-concluded Level-2 coach Education Course included all the players who were the graduates from the inaugural 2001-2002 batch. While the youngsters in the upcoming programme will be provided cricket coaching, they will be educated on various other important aspects of professional cricket, including diet awareness, control and management; anti-doping; anti-corruption; rules and regulations; people management; media handling; physical fitness; gymnasium training; lifestyle etc. We have some of the most committed and dedicated coaches at the National Cricket Academy, who will leave no stone unturned in helping these youngsters get ready for the future and reduce the gap between domestic and international cricket. Exciting times await these young cricketers at the NCA and beyond, and the education they will receive here will only help them make optimum use of those career-building opportunities.” Pakistan U16 players to attend the player skills and training from Monday, 17 June to 13 July 2019, are: Ahmad Khan (Abbottabad), Ali Asfand (Faisalabad), Ali Hassan (Sialkot), Aliyan Mehmood (Karachi), Amir Hassan (Rawalpindi), Arham Nawab (Faisalabad), Aseer Mughal (Rawalpindi), Ayaz Shah (FATA), Faisal Akram (Multan), Farhad Khan (FATA), Haseebullah Khan (Quetta), Kashif Ali (Karachi), Khalid Khan (Quetta), Muneeb Wasif (Lahore), Mohammad Shehzad (Multan), Mohammad Waqas (Faisalabad), Rizwan Mehmood (Hyderabad), Sameer Saqib (Faisalabad), Umer Eman (Lahore) and Zubair Shinwari (FATA) (wicketkeeper). NCA Programme 2019-2020: Player National Skills and Training 1: Emerging Players High Performance Camp (U16 & U19, 2018-2019 batch) – June to August (12 weeks), NCA 2: NCA Specialised Skill Development Programme (Pakistan A players) – September (2 weeks), NCA 3: NCA U16 Development Squad Camp (2019-2020 batch) – October/November (4 weeks), NCA 4L NCA U19 High Performance Camp (Pre-ICC U19 CWC 2020) – December/January (6 weeks), NCA 5: NCA U13 Basic Coaching Programme – January (2 weeks), NCA 6: U16 post-tour Skills, Performance, Analysis Development (SPAD) Camp (2019-2020 batch) – February (4 weeks), NCA/HPC 7: Remote Areas Fast Bowlers & Batsmen Skills Development Programme – March (2 weeks), NCA/HPC 8: Remote Areas Spin Bowlers and Batsmen Skills Development Camp – April (2 weeks), NCA/HPC 9: Emerging Players Fitness Training Camp – June (4 weeks), NCA Youth/talent hunt skills training programme: 1: Youth Talent Hunt Programme (open trails & age verification of U13 & U16 at districts) – August (4 days week), 80 country-wide activities 2: U16 Pepsi/PCB Cricket Star Programme (regional trials and pre-tournament camp) – August (2 weeks), 16 regions 3: U16 Regional National One-Day Tournament – September (2 weeks), Karachi/Islamabad/Lahore 4: U16 Pentangular One-Day Tournament – September (1 week), Lahore 5: U13 Catch ‘em’ Young Programme (pre-tournament camp) – December (1 week), 16 Regions 6: U13 Regional National T20 Tournament – December (2 weeks), Karachi/Multan/Lahore/Islamabad 7: Talent Hunt in Remote Areas (Power-hitters, Tall & fast and spin wizards) – February/March (1 day each), 14 cities.