Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar has often expressed his wish to see India flourish as a sporting nation. And after five years of his retirement, the Master Blaster has finally launched his own cricket academy.

As per the reports in Reuters, Tendulkar has joined forces with Middlesex Cricket to launch an academy and he aims to take the venture beyond cricket’s traditional pockets. The academy is for the budding male and female cricketers between the ages of 9 and 14.

“Along the way there were many guys who approached me but I was not convinced with what they wanted to do,” Tendulkar told Reuters.

“If we are to do something for young cricketers then we have to be on the same page, the vision has to align. With Middlesex, that was the case,” he added.

Merchant Taylor’s School in Northwood will host the Tendulkar Middlesex Global Academy’s first cricket camp from Aug. 6-9 while Mumbai will host one in November.

“It will be in India, England and other parts of the world. It’s not necessarily just the cricket playing nations,” Sachin revealed.

“There are number of nations where there is interest in cricket but they do not have access to proper facilities. The vision is to spread cricket to as many countries as possible,” he further stated.

Tendulkar, who aggregated more than 34,000 runs and 100 centuries in a 24-year career that came to an end in 2013, also disclosed that the final agreement with Middlesex Cricket was reached only when both parties were convinced.

“The vision is not just to have cricket academies but along with cricket we want to promote other sports,” the batting maestro remarked.

“We want to build clubs all across the world. Clubs where you will have tennis courts, badminton courts, squash, table tennis, swimming pools, billiards… We want to promote sports across the world. That’s why there is no ‘cricket’ in the name of the academy. I would say global sports centre. That is what the vision is,” Sachin Tendulkar concluded.

(With inputs from Reuters)