National Cricket Academy

Cricket academy in Benglore, India

The National Cricket Academy (NCA) is a cricket facility of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Bengaluru, India, for the purpose of developing young cricketers who have been identified as having the potential to represent the Indian cricket team. It was established in 2000 and is located near to the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium The facility is also used for the rehabilitation of injured players. Former cricketer VVS Laxman is the director of the NCA.

The NCA has collaborated with the MRF Pace Foundation to train fast bowlers from across the country. The facility also works as a rehabilitation centre for injured members of India's cricket team. Ravi Shastri, in comments about frequently injured cricketers, sarcastically called some players "permanent residents of NCA", which he said was "not a good thing at all". as of 2023, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, and Rishabh Pant were admitted to the centre.

The NCA was the brainchild of cricket administrator and former BCCI President Raj Singh Dungarpur. In 2000, NCA member and adviser Sunil Gavaskar argued that the NCA team should not have played the visiting Zimbabwe team, saying "I thought it was unfair on the performers who were not given a chance to play first class matches against touring sides". In response, NCA chair Raj Singh Dungarpur said, "Such people should either resign from the committee, or take it on, or fall in line." In 2014, BCCI collaborated with Cricket Australia and the ECB to get expert opinions on the creation of its new structure. On 16February 2022, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah announced the construction of a new NCA facility at near the Bangalore airport. Plans included three cricket grounds, a gymnasium, 40 practice pitches, a swimming pool, and rooms for upcoming players.

Season Chair Director Coaches 2000 Sunil Gavaskar Brijesh Patel Balwinder Sandhu (Chief coach), K Jayantilal, Roger Binny 2002 Bittu 2003 Chandrakant Pandit, Venkatesh Prasad, Rajesh Kamath, Vaibhav Daga (Physio) 2004 2005 Shivlal Yadav Dinesh Nanavaty, Venkatesh Prasad, Raghuram Bhat, Sanath Kumar, S. Basu 2006 Kapil Dev 2007 Ravi Shastri 2008–2010 Dav Whatmore 2010–2012 Anil Kumble Sandeep Patil 2014–2019 Brijesh Patel Dr. Kinjal Suratwala (Head, Sports Science & Coach Education), Bharat Arun (Head, Bowling Unit), Dinesh Nanavaty (Head, Batting Unit), V Venkataram (bowling coach), R Sridhar (fielding coach) 2019–2021Rahul Dravid 2021 VVS Laxman

NCA awards a scholarship to three promising players to visit Australia's Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. The scholarship is named after the legendary Australian and Indian captains, Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar, who both scored more than 10,000 runs in Test cricket.