September 27 Friday 2002
Australia will envy England academy: Marsh

LONDON: The new England academy at the Loughborough University in Leicestershire will be the envy of world champions Australia, Rod Marsh said on Thursday.

"People in the cricket world have been used to keeping up with Australia," Marsh told 'The Guardian' newspaper. "But I can see Australia looking at this (the academy) and saying that they want something similar.

"The centre here will be far and away better than where we have been based in Adelaide in the past couple of (English) winters. From now on keeping up with the Joneses will mean keeping up with Loughborough," said the former Australian wicketkeeper, who is one year into his three-year stint as director of the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) National Academy.

Work would begin on the new four-million-pound ($6.25 million) academy next month and was scheduled to be completed in a year's time, said the newspaper.

ECB Performance Director Hugh Morris was also full of praise for the new academy. "The facilities will be world-class. Our new facility will be more than just a centre for our National Academy squad.

"It will be a national centre for the whole family of cricket, a place of our own where the very best male and female players can be developed and looked after to give them the best chance of achieving excellence at the highest level."