The Hindu : Sport : Limited opportunities for boys from districts

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Saturday, Sep 08, 2007
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Sport

Limited opportunities for boys from districts

The urge to do well in cricket has been much higher in the boys from the districts, writes Makarand Waingankar

Cricket in India is no longer a game. With both sides throwing punches at each other in the BCCI-ICL match, had there been a match referee, he too would have found it difficult to press the right button. The cricket-loving public is confused about the claims of each party, and this will continue till the first match of the Twenty20 is played next month. What irks one is that, of late one gets to hear a lot about the development of the game in the districts. With 604 distri cts in 28 States and seven Union Territories in India, not even 10 per cent of the districts have been covered as it requires monumental work to be accomplished with a missionary zeal.

There is no doubt that the BCCI has been making efforts to reach out to the districts. But not all associations show the same keenness or the concern to develop the game in the districts.

After having travelled in all the 27 districts of Karnataka in 2001, I observed that the urge to do well in cricket has been much higher in the boys from the districts than those from the city. Lack of infrastructure forces them to travel long distances by rickety buses to attend cricket camps.

Ground realities

Having assessed the ground realities, a programme was devised and the KSCA Cricket Academy was formed. Tapping the untapped areas was the key to the success of the programme, and by 2003 inter-district matches were played in all age-groups.

Playing inter-district matches covering three age-groups at the junior level made sense as talent sometimes emerged from places that didn’t have a proper cricket ground.

The problem is the limited opportunities the boys from the districts get, especially if there is one State association in large States like Uttar Pradesh (70 districts), Madhya Pradesh (48 districts) and Bihar (59 districts).

The players from these States suffered compared to those from Maharashtra (which has three associations), Gujrat (3) and Andhra (2). Either the BCCI should have one-State-one-association policy or bifurcate the big State associations into two associations so that uniformity is maintained.

One-State-one-association leads to favouritism during selection process. Recently a former India junior player committed suicide in U.P. as he was not getting picked for the State team despite good performances.

And now with the BCCI increasing the match fees, the selection process, if not controlled or monitored, would create major problems.

Discontent

One can’t deny the fact that the discontent in the selection process of certain associations helped ICL grow. The BCCI has been taking measures to streamline selections at the national level, but it’s at the State level that the discontent is spreading like a wildfire and that needs to be stopped.

If the intention is to go to the grassroots level, BCCI will have to generate huge funds to deploy manpower to develop untapped areas. When the agents are appointed, accountability is the critical factor. This seems to be the only solution for Indian cricket.

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