Faizan Khan / Agra

Feroz Khan has built a unique cricket ‘ground’ in Agra; it’s located on the rooftop and the aspiring players can practice the game under the glare of the LED lamps at night.

The purpose of building this academy was to help those cricketers who do not have time to practice during the day.

This also qualifies to be called India’s first rooftop indoor cricket academy; it’s located in Kamla Nagar locality of the city of Taj Mahal. Khan runs his Cosmos Cricket Academy here on the third floor of Kamla Nagar City Mall.

The indoor academy is seeing a huge footfall of the budding cricketers.

Feroz Khan, head coach of the Academy. says, "This academy will benefit players who are either studying or are busy in other things in the daytime and have no time to play in the open grounds. Such learners can come for practice in the evening or even at night. ”

He says that rooftop academy gives a different net practice to the cricketers.

Academy's assistant coach Dravit Sharma says, "Here, we make the students practice bowling with the help of a machine. The learners have a great experience of playing at night. With this, the cricketers will be able to perform well in the night cricket tournament as and when they get a chance to play."

The indoor rooftop cricket academy is different from the outdoor academy in many ways.

Feroz Khan explains, "This concept is borrowed from the UK. There, players practice outdoor for four months and indoors for the rest of the year. At least 80 per cent of academics in the UK are indoor. "

It takes a lot of effort to maintain an outdoor pitch but no such effort is required in a rooftop pitch. You can start practising whenever you want.

The net practice is not affected by sunshine or rain as it’s a closed environment. In the ground, sometimes players have to retreat because of the intense heat, rain or adverse weather conditions.

Nowadays, most cricket matches including the IPL ODI are happening in the night format, under the glare of the LED lights Cricketers who are raised playing under the LED lights do better in such matches.

Megha Sharma, who played under-19 cricket from Arunachal Pradesh, says the players will have a different experience from this academy. In such an academy, you can start the practice by just opening your kit bag, but it is not so outdoor. There, you have to practice according to the weather.

Priyanka Luthra said that you cannot practice outdoors all the time.

“One has to take care of the pitch there. If it has rained, the practice lasts for three-four days; it's not so in the indoor academy. Whatever the season, you can practice.