BCCI to develop cricket in North-East region of country

The Board of Control for Cricket in India is planning to develop the game of cricket in the North-East of India. According to reports, in a recently-held meeting of the National Cricket Academy in the capital, the board is planning to launch an academy, under the aegis of the NCA, in either Shillong or Dimapur as soon as next month.

If reports are to be believed, it is the Lodha Committee’s recommendations which might have prompted the apex body to take such a move to grow and nurture the sport in the North-East region.

Tha launch of the planned academy will be preceded by selection trials in North-East and then a camp. The coaches for this camp will be provided by the NCA. The board is also dwelling on the idea of playing a combined team from the North-East (excluding players from Assam and Tripura who already play in BCCI-affiliated tournaments) in its junior-level competitions in the upcoming cricket season.

Launching a full-time academy

According to a source in the NCA, they are planning to hold the selection trials in the first week of May and start the camp soon after. He also said that their curator Ashish Bhowmik, who is also a member of the BCCI pitches and grounds committee went to Shillong to see its preparedness in holding the camp.

The curator will also visit Dimapur on Friday to assess the situation there. The curator is expected to submit his report on 30th April and based on his assessment either of the proposed places could hold the camp next month.

It is also believed that the entire planning was set in motion only at the behest of board secretary Anurag Thakur, who visited the region five six times to assess the cricketing talent there. With the talent of cricket not being in abundance in these parts of the country as Cricket is not the number 1 sport in the North-East, the process is just the first step towards developing the game in these parts of the country,

According to reports, Thakur said, "Since I've been the BCCI secretary, I have visited the North East and checked the ground reality, and for the past six-seven months, we've been discussing various strategies that can work best in the region keeping in mind the pool of talent and the logistics available there.

“It's been an ongoing discussion. At the recently-held meeting in New Delhi, members of the NCA committee looked at all the options and decided to go ahead with this idea of looking into launching a full-time academy under the aegis of NCA."

The next step

When he was asked whether the BCCI was taking this step to fall in line with the Lodha Committee's recommendations, Thakur clarified, "In cricket, all the camps or activities start around this time of the year. Combining this with the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations is a mere coincidence."

He also elaborated on what the next step would be in this direction and said, "Everything would be done in a proper, structured manner with short term and long term plans. To start with, we'll conduct trials in various centres to cover the talent in the entire region and get the best of the lot to the camp. Based on the response of this camp, we intend to start a full-time North-East Academy.”

He also signed off saying, “We're planning to make a combined North-East team and make them play Under-19 and Under-16 nationals this year. I'll personally request our cricketing greats to visit the camp and academy in N-E to inspire the cricketers from the region. Talented players will be provided exposure in some of our established academies in the bigger centres."