Pravin Amre looks to carry lessons from Shivaji Park to LaGrange Stadium in USA

Former India player and coach Pravin Amre on Monday said he is looking to carry his grassroots cricket lessons here at the Shivaji Park to Atlanta in the US, where he will be working on a new project of bringing up the LaGrange Stadium. The under-construction stadium is being developed by the LaGrange Cricket Holdings in Atlanta, Georgia, with the focus on developing a cricket-centric venue which has all the requisite parameters as per the ICC norms.

''I personally think whatever I learned from the Shivaji Park, if I go globally, I can help there and more (venues) like that,'' Amre, the chief strategy officer of the LaGrange Cricket Holdings said in a press conference.

''Shivaji Park has been a nursing home for cricket and if Atlanta can be one as well, it will be good,'' added Amre, who has also coached India players Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer to name a few, along with a long stint as batting coach of the Delhi Capitals in the IPL.

The new stadium will have a sitting capacity of 10,000 which can be expanded up to 25,000 if required for specific events, with the organisers saying they have closely studied cricket stadiums across the world to imbibe specific features for the LaGrange Stadium.

The organisers said while the venue is being developed to ensure there is an international-standard stadium in the US for cricket, where matches have largely been played on makeshift venues, it will also be used for other sports and community activities.

''Every time there is an international game in Florida, they're down a couple of million dollars because they have to put (up) a temporary infrastructure in place so what we are building is something important,'' said Siddharth Das, co-founder operations. ''This is not temporary, this will remain. I also mentioned cricket will be the hub of this. It is at the core of why we do want to be sustainable, and therefore the multi-sports opportunity, and also surrounding will be an entire family fitness sport-based ecosystem that will keep us afloat,'' he said. First meeting with Ramakant Achrekar ======================== One of the students of the Dronacharya Award-winning coach Ramakant Achrekar who played for India, Amre also recalled his first meeting with the legendary cricket coach.

''Everybody knows that, I'm a student of Achrekar sir but no one knows how I met him. I was like any other kid from Shivaji Park, I would play cricket there. One day I told my teammates that we should play with the season ball,'' Amre said.

''I went to Achrekar sir wearing slippers and asked him 'can you play a match against my team'. He told me, 'you have to get 11 players in whites, (proper) shoes and you have to pay Rs 55 and a ball'.'' ''None of my friends could afford it and the only man I could go to was my father here. (In the match), I scored only 10 runs but when I went to pay Rs 55 to Achrekar sir, he said 'if you want to play cricket, you come to me'. My life was changed (since then),'' he added.

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