BCCI to grow cricket in North East India

Having been neglected thus far, the recommendations of the Lodha Committee report seem to be heeded to finally. Reports coming in seem to suggest that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has taken its first initiative to develop the sport in the North Eastern region of the country.

Further reports suggest that the BCCI would be conducting training camps under the flagship of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) which is either expected to be held in Shillong or Dimapur shortly. The launch of this academy will be preceded by selection trials in North-East, followed by a camp, for which the coaches will be provided by the NCA The board is also contemplating the idea of playing a combined team from the North East (excluding players from Assam and Tripura who already play in all the BCCI-affiliated tournaments) in its junior-level competitions in the forthcoming season.

“We plan to hold the selection trials in the first week of May and start the camp soon after. Our curator Ashish Bhowmik (member of the BCCI pitches and grounds committee) is in Shillong today (Thursday) to see its preparedness in holding the camp. He’ll be visiting Dimapur on Friday to assess the situation there. After he submits his report on April 30, either of these places could hold the camp next month,” said a source in the NCA.

Confirming this move, Thakur told TOI on Thursday “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.”

Thakur 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 .

“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,” he said.

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