Virender Sehwag credits Nawab Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Kris Srikkanth for helping him become better batsman

New Delhi, June 9: Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag's foot movement was always under scrutiny for as long as he played competitive cricket. The right-handed batsman, who established himself as one of the best openers of all times, especially in Test cricket, was always branded as someone with brilliant hand-eye coordination but poor footwork.

The Nawab of Najafgarh while interacting with media persons virtually during the launch of CRICURU, an experiential learning app, has now revealed there were many who pointed out this drawback in his batting but hardly anyone came to him with a solution. Sehwag has credited former India captains Nawab MAK Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Krishamachari Srikkanth for helping him in this aspect.

"There were many experts and cricketers in my early years of international cricket who used to point out my lack of foot movement, but none had and plausible suggestions to rectify it until Nawab Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Kris Srikanth helped me. They told me that rather than thinking about my footwork, I should start batting on the middle or off-stump instead of taking my stance on the leg stump. That helped me a lot and improved my game. So credit goes to them," Sehwag said during the virtual interaction.

CRICURU is an experiential learning app aimed at redefining and revolutionising the cricket coaching experience in the country. Sehwag and former India cricketer and ex-India batting coach Sanjay Bangar are the co-founders of the one-of its kind learning app.

CRICURU claims to be a pioneer in AI-based cricket coaching in India and offers a personalised learning experience to its users. The curriculum for each player is developed personally by Sehwag and Bangar.

During the interaction, Sehwag and Bangar also spoke about the role coaches and team managements play in the early international cricket years of the young players. Citing the example of India's promising young talents like Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill, the duo said they should be working in tandem with the coach and support staff on their mental aspect of the game for they are not devoid of skills.

With international cricket attaining new heights in terms of technology-led innovation, Sehwag believes there was a need for India to join the bandwagon and offer a similar experience for aspiring cricketers.

Talking about the app, Sehwag, said: "At CRICURU, our aim is to develop an ecosystem to democratise cricket learning in India and bridge the existing gaps. Our curriculum is designed meticulously giving access to coaching experts from across the globe to offer an uninterrupted coaching experience for aspiring cricketers at par with international standards of cricket."

CRICURU also gives parents an opportunity to become partners with their children as they work towards attaining the required skill set for a professional career in cricket, Sehwag added.

An AI-enabled mobile-web-based application, CRICURU is designed to help youngsters learn playing cricket through master classes of 30 handpicked player coaches from across the globe like AB de Villiers, Brett Lee, Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Harbhajan Singh, Jonty Rhodes.

With about four hours of curated video content with each coach, learning is evaluated using customised AI-led technology that rates performance objectively and on an ongoing basis to show progress.

With proprietary features like coaching videos, AI/ML analysis, and Dial-A-Coach, featuring a niche of sports learning AI/ML-based video bank of cricketing legends and engaging simulations, CRICURU aims to create an affordable expert cricket coaching platform.

The app's co-founder Bangar, says, "The vision behind CRICURU is to offer access to cricket coaching for people living anywhere across the country, even Tier 2 and 3 cities which can be easily accessed from the comfort of your homes. With smartphone and internet penetration on the rise, this just makes it more accessible for aspiring enthusiasts."

The app is available on both iOS and Android devices. Each class of CRICURU includes extensive pre-recorded video content and offers a combination of demonstrations and interviews where the coach shares his experience and learning with users as to how they navigated success, failure, and fame.

Users can log on to www.cricuru.com to subscribe, the subscription fee starts from Rs 299 for a duration of one year.