Dubai Sports City builds a culture of education and development in sport

Based at Dubai Sports City, the ICC's Global Cricket Academy is the focal point of the games development, and is providing educational courses to ensure that best practice is shared among the entire cricket playing nations.

The ICC's Global Cricket Academy is one of seven academies in Dubai Sports City, including football, rugby, hockey, golf, tennis, and swimming.

They will all provide elite facilities to allow international sides to train, while also offering coaching and educational courses to aspiring youngsters and local clubs.

'The ICC's Global Cricket Academy is committed to improving all areas of the game and the seminar allowed more than 30 ground staff from Pakistan to come together to discuss the art of preparing a cricket pitch,' Tony Hemming, the ICC Global Cricket Academy's head curator said.

The seminar dealt with pitch construction, preparation and measuring pitch performance.

Hemming also discussed environmental issues, planning for Test matches and effective record keeping.

The invited guests were treated to a presentation on the construction of Dubai Sports City's 25,000-seater cricket stadium with details on how soil brought over from Pakistan was being used in the building of the pitch.

'To develop cricketers of the future, we also need to develop young curators who have an educational science background that can work alongside the more experienced curators. In time they will be producing pitches that can favor a more entertaining game on the Asian sub-continent,' Hemming added.

The ICC's Global Cricket Academy, is building wickets that replicate playing conditions across the world.

It is envisaged that this will help to attract many of the top teams and also to provide a wide spectrum of coaching in what will be a unique environment.

'Part of our role at the ICC's Global Cricket Academy is to ensure that we share good practice across all of the cricket-playing nations and we are perfectly placed to facilitate these hugely productive meetings,' said the ICC's Global Cricket Academy's General Manager Marc Archer.