Newcomers feel out of place

CHENNAI:Where to even begin with! Lack of proper infrastructure? Lack of quality players? Lack of funds? How bad the response has been from cricketers who were asked if they wanted to come over as professionals? Lack of training facilities? Lack of preparation time?

These are some of the responses you get from representatives of the six Northeast states — Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram — who have been integrated into the Ranji Trophy, in accordance with the Supreme Court order. It has been a week since the BCCI announced a domestic calendar featuring 37 teams for the premier domestic tournament. It is still three months away, but there are the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-dayers from September 19, for which they are racing against time to put together 11 players who can compete against the rest.

There is a lot of excitement, but many questions as well. “Where are we going to play our matches? The communication we received was Ranji matches would be played on a home-and-away basis. But we don’t even have a ground for practice. Did you hear anything about our venues?” It more or less sums up where these states stand.

They are hoping to get an answer on August 1, when representatives of the six states meet the Northeast Task Force, appointed by the BCCI, to see their transition into the senior domestic fold. “We are worried about what is in store. We received `50 lakh from the BCCI for four years from 2009 for improving infrastructure in the region. Since then, we have not received anything. So there is no question of having a system in place for our cricketers,” says Naba Bhattacharjee, the BCCI convenor of Northeast states.

While Pondicherry, Uttarakhand and Bihar — the other three new entrants — have some sort of system in place and enough players, the story is different in the Northeast. Pondicherry have already confirmed Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar and Paras Dogra of Himachal as professionals for the upcoming season. This is in contrast to Northeast. At least a dozen offers from these states have been turned down so far.“The first question they ask is if we have a ground and training facilities. Forget money, we can manage that with assistance from the BCCI. We can’t approach professionals without a system in place.

We have seen how Assam or even Tripura struggle to get professional players to play for them. So what can we do? Some of these places will be logistically challenging for hosting matches. With the monsoon about to set in, we are scratching our head over where to practice,” an official from one of these teams said.

Some of these associations are set to propose a plan, which would see them train with established teams. “We need to give our players the best possible training facilities. At the task force meeting, we will request the BCCI to help us with this issue. Sikkim and Arunachal don’t have a venue. They have to play elsewhere. These are the challenges we have at this moment,” Bhattacharjee said.

Last season, when women’s teams from Northeast played in the national U-19 tournament, there were many lopsided contests. But their men’s teams are expected to do better, especially if they are placed in a Plate Group of new entrants. This model, which would see the-last placed team from Elite Group C demoted to Plate, has found no takers. “If there are three teams battling to avoid relegation, there is a possibility that they would try to finish last. Because, it will put them with these teams next year and they can qualify for the quarterfinals without much trouble,” an official said.

venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com