Raina and R.P. Singh's success in the season gone by has focused greater attention on the college. Earlier, there would be around 400-500 aspirants for admission, out of which 15 cricket trainees get in each year. Now the number of aspirants has gone up—the college this year had nearly 1,600 applicants in Lucknow alone, with another 1,400 in other centres in UP. "We can get good quality out of this," says chief coach Deepak Sharma. "The kids aren't from affluent backgrounds, nor do they have much cricket running in the family...they work a great deal harder."
It's not as if the Sports College hasn't produced anyone before the new crop. "Ashish Winston Zaidi and Kaif's elder brother, Mohammed Saif, spring to my mind. But then, UP was hardly in focus in national cricket," Sharma says. "The scope for youngsters to come up has increased since exposure is much greater now. The introduction of a league system at the junior level has changed the scenario."
It's amazing how with such little infrastructure and manpower so much success has come by. Sports College, for instance, has but two coaches—S.P. Krishnan helps Sharma—to attend to the needs of 60 trainees. The Kanpur hostel offers just two strips for practice. "Mind you, the facilities are not in the same league as you would get at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore...but the focus is sharp," Kaif told Outlook.
"In the hostel, you just have people of your group, the ground and the equipment available...there's no scope for doing anything else. At worst, you play a spot of some other game," says Kaif. "But the focus is on cricket and you cannot bother too much about what else happens in the outside world. Even the evenings are not wasted, it's spent on honing your skills. Since there are just two nets available, you almost always get a good bowler to bowl to you. These are small things but the extra effort pays off in the long run. The discipline of being in a hostel, getting up early, training, makes us tougher."