Dreams Start Here: How Delhi Capitals Are Building India’s Most Powerful Academies

Building it from the ground up. 

Delhi Capitals have sworn by this for the past few years, with multiple academy programmes across the country and now beyond Indian shores. This has been reflected in the franchise's performance, as they have established themselves as one of the more consistent sides in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Women's Premier League (WPL).

But like how Rome wasn’t built in a day, Delhi Capitals Academy too weren’t. Over the last few years, various schools and coaches have come together to establish the ‘Pathway to Excellence’, with tournaments, scholarship programmes, and help these athletes grow.

Yash Dhull’s rise to the DC setup is a noteworthy case, with the Indian U-19 youngster not just being spotted but also trained at DC’s Academy and undergoing their programme to become one of the first homegrown players for the franchise. 

Elsewhere, the likes of Hrithik Shokeen and Anuj Rawat have graduated from the programme to represent top teams in the IPL. The biggest name of them all—Harshit Rana—not only graduated at the IPL level but also became one of the overnight sensations on the Indian side. 

There are currently around 12 well-oiled DC academies in the country and two in the United Kingdom, where they are trained under Sajid Mahmood. So, how did DC come up with the concept, and how are they executing it? DC’s CEO Sunil Gupta shares a light on the DC Academies and the vision: 

Could you share the story behind the start of the DC Academy? What was its vision and goal at the start?

At Delhi Capitals Academies, we want to give young players a chance to realise their dreams of playing professional cricket at the highest level. We do this by bringing in the best cricketing minds, creating the best training environment and providing the right experiences for the development of young players, both as cricketers and as individuals.

Over the years, we have expanded our reach and network, and we now have an extensive network of academies.

Over the years, many of the graduates have played for Delhi, IPL, and, of course, India as well. Could you talk about how the academies chart a player’s growth?

At DC Academies, player growth is tracked through a comprehensive development approach focusing on technical skills and personal values. Players are provided with a structured training program that evolves with their progression from grassroots levels to elite cricketing platforms. In last year’s maiden Delhi Premier League season, along with several male players, we also had a total of 16 women players from our DC Academies who had taken part in the competition.

We had ten girls representing our academies for our WPL trials held in September 2024. Two of them, Anshu Apurva and Archana Kumari from our Delhi Capitals Academy in Patna, were recruited as net bowlers for our WPL team’s pre-season camp in Pune. For us, it is satisfying to see the kind of opportunities and exposure they got during an entire week, working with the best players from around the world and learning from our exceptional coaching staff. 

Something we are fascinated about is scouting talents, how does the DC Academy scout these talents from the grass root level?

We have elite coaches and support coaches at all of our academies who work closely with our central academy team to monitor player development continuously. As I mentioned earlier, when we spot a potential talent, we invite them to our IPL and WPL team trials and camps.

There are as many as 9 academies in India, how do you ensure that all these processes run smoothly?

We have a full-fledged central academy team that runs and monitors the operations remotely daily and also through frequent visits. This has enabled us to foster a strong working relationship with our academies around the world. It works because we are all aligned in bringing to life our collective vision of fostering overall talent development.

You also have 2 academies outside India, are there plans to grow that in the future?

Yes, we have two academies in England in collaboration with former England cricketer Sajid Mahmood, known as the Delhi Capitals Saj Mahmood Cricket Academy, located at Farringtons School, and the William Perkin CofE High School. Looking ahead, we definitely plan to expand our international presence further to discover and nurture global cricketing talent.

Could you also discuss partnerships with schools and different academies and how you guys find the right partnerships?

For us, the synergy that is needed is on the vision – they should have the same expectations and ambitions as ours – that is to nurture talent.

What are the future goals of the Academy? Where do you expect DC Academies to be at the end of 2025? 

In line with our motto, "Dreams Start Here," we believe that we must provide the right infrastructure and platform to budding cricketers and enable them on their journey towards realising their dreams of playing professional cricket at the highest level. With that in mind, we will continue to invest in and expand the DC Academy network across the world and hope to have 25-30 such academies by the end of this year.