“I am an ardent devotee of Lord Hanuman. My prayers were answered through Hanuma Vihari (Hyderabad batsman who scored a double hundred), who made it possible for Andhra to qualify with his marathon innings. In fact, the entire Hyderabad team played splendidly,” said an elated M.S.K. Prasad, former India stumper and Director, Cricket Operations, Andhra Cricket Association, on Wednesday.
The match between Hyderabad and Himachal teams ended in a draw paving the way for Andhra (29 points) and Assam (35) teams to make it to knockout stage.
Buoyed by the Andhra team’s success, the ACA has announced a cash award of Rs. 15 lakh and as a special recognition, Rs. 1 lakh was given away to flamboyant opener K.S. Bharat who scored more than 600 runs including a triple century.
The association has given away Rs. 43 lakh to all victorious teams in various age groups as a gesture for the first time in its 62-year history. For Andhra Ranji team, which fell from Elite Group in 2008-2009, it was a joyous occasion for it had graduated after six years of sweat and toil. In 2012-13, the team lost qualification by a whisker.
Relentlessly finding ways and means to bolster the attitude and technique among players was M.S.K. Prasad and his team, which brought a whiff of change by appointing professional players – criticism notwithstanding.
Country’s best domestic player Amol Mazmudar, former India leggie Sairaj Bahutule, left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar, as players and Kaushik Patel (New Zealander and cousin of Kiwi international Dipak Patel) as coach played their role in the previous seasons infusing the purpose of professionalism.
This season, ACA hired the services of former India international Mohammad Kaif and country’s ace fielding coach R. Sridhar as new captain and head coach respectively with the hope of making the grade but with the latter joining the Indian team as fielding coach, Prasad & Co was forced to initiate yet another talent search for the job of a head coach and spotted Gujarat Mukund Parmar. The association also roped in Dr. Kinjal Suratwala, physiotherapist and psychologist, as mentor. ACA, under its secretary Dr. Gokaraju Ganga Raju, won the appreciation of the BCCI and other affiliated units for its visionary road map spending crores of rupees in sprucing up playfields in all the districts.
Places like Vizianagaram, Kadapa, Guntur and Mangalagiri got state-of-the-art academies with playfields and Ongole and Perecherla got lush green playfields with infrastructure to host BCCI’s junior and senior fixtures.
“In fact, the gamble to play four matches — two each and Vizianagaram and Ongole — has paid off as we prepared to our advantage as per the BCCI curator’s suggestions,” Prasad said.
