The feud between the BCCI and the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) is affecting the morale of hundreds of young players in the State. In order to sort out the issues, the BCCI under the chairmanship of former Test player Brijesh Patel formed a committee but the RCA citing the Rajasthan Sports Act hasn’t allowed it to take any measures.
Whether it is the BCCI or the RCA, the young players of Rajasthan have always suffered. In the early 90s the two factions, Arvindsinhaji of Mewar — with the backing of Rajsingh Dungarpur, Hanumant Singh and other cricketers — had a running feud with the ruling group. The young players, totally confused, opted to be with the Mewar faction. Little did they realise they would be victimised.
I was witness to an incident involving P. Krishnakumar, an 18-year-old left-arm medium pace bowler and left-handed batsman waiting for his turn to bat in the nets during the India under-19 selection trials at the Wankhede stadium in 1992. The joint secretary of BCCI had asked him to be ready to bat.
In walked the president of RCA, who was an influential figure in the BCCI, and instructed the secretary not to consider Krishnakumar for selection since he belonged to other faction.
When the boy was told, he wept bitterly. Later Krishnakumar went on to play for 16 years of first-class cricket for Rajasthan but he still has not forgotten the incident after 22 years!
In another incident former Rajasthan player and international umpire Suresh Shastri and his Rajasthan colleague Subhash Mathur were posted as umpires for a junior match between RCA and UPCA at Udaipur.
Shastri says, “When we reached the city we didn’t notice any activity on the ground but on the day of the match we were told that the ruling group had forced the UP team to get out of the train at Bikaner and the match was played there. Funnily, it was accepted as an official match by the BCCI.”
On another occasion the state under-19 team wasn’t allowed by the ruling group to enter the ground to play BCCI under-19 match and the gates were locked.
When the players — Krishnakumar was one of them — belonging to the Mewar faction tried to climb the gate, the police beat them up!
Big improvementHowever, it is not all doom and gloom.
Things have improved a lot in last decade. There has been emphasis on developing of the game in districts which provided talented players to the state. Rajasthan won the Ranji Trophy twice under the captaincy of Hrishikesh Kanitkar, something it could not manage under Dungarpur and his band of highly reputed players such as Vinoo Mankad, Vijay Manjrekar, Subhash Gupte, Salim Durrani, Hanumant Singh and his brother Suryaveer Singh. Rajasthan was beaten by Mumbai in seven Ranji finals.
No death of talentThere is no dearth of young talent in Rajasthan. The NCA bowling coach Balwinder Singh Sandhu says, “Medium pacers Deepak Chahar and teenager Nathu Singh are exceptional talents. Nathu bowls at a tidy pace and has very good control over swing. If handled properly they are our future.”
But is anyone concerned about the future of young talented and hardworking cricketers of Rajasthan?
As a parent body the BCCI will have to find a solution. If the BCCI decides to play — under-16, 19, 23 and Ranji Trophy — teams under different names there will be a logistics problem.
Around 100 players will have to have a base outside Rajasthan for the season as RCA is unlikely to let them practice anywhere in the State.
And this formula can work only for the Ranji players but not for the teenagers who will be missing their school and college classes.
Surely there is a way out but for that to happen the welfare of young cricketers of Rajasthan should be the top priority.
