The BCCI will bear the entire cost of the cash-strapped North Eastern states’ Ranji Trophy debut, which has been mandated by the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committee, a couple of whom will play their home games at neutral venues due to lack of infrastructure.
It has been reliably learnt that Sikkim and Arunachal do not have grounds that will meet the requirements of First Class cricket and will play at neutral venues in neighbouring States.
The BCCI will be providing all the six states with their accredited NCA coaches, physios and trainers (men’s, boys age group, women, girls’ age group). Normally the BCCI units pay for their support staff but for NE states, the parent body will make an exception.
“BCCI has assured that all the State teams will be provided with coaches. We will have to submit our requirements and accordingly they will depute the support staff. The entire expenses will be borne by the board,” a representative of the North Eastern State said on the condition of anonymity.
“We will not be paid any grant directly. We need to submit the budget clearly mentioning all the overheads and BCCI directly makes the payments.
“It is difficult to pinpoint a figure but anything in the range of ₹4-5 crore needs to be spent per state. Infrastructure and logistics are two key issues,” he added.
The representatives of the North Eastern states met the BCCI’s Cricket Operations team in Mumbai on Wednesday.
