This article was written by Hokaito Zhimomi on July 7 for the web edition of Wisden Asia, a monthly cricket magazine. Eastern Mirror is reproducing the piece with due permission from the writer. Zhimomi, the first person from Nagaland to play first-class cricket, was a part of Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2008.
Recently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the National Cricket Academy (NCA) conducted a few camps in Nagaland and Meghalaya, Dimapur and Shillong to be specific. They invited talented youngsters – Under-16 and Under-19 – from across the north-eastern states, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim and, of course, Meghalaya and Nagaland, which is where I am from.
I liked what I saw. I didn’t go to Shillong, but I was there for a week during the monthlong camp in Dimapur, and I thought that finally the talented boys in our part of the country were getting a taste of how it is to train at the highest level. These boys are just enthusiastic about cricket, not serious enough about it to make it their career, but they were excited.
To me, more than the training, it was a sign that the BCCI are serious about cricket in the northeast. This is because of the recommendations of the Justice Lodha committee, of course, but it’s good to see the BCCI responding quickly, and also to see Anurag Thakur, the BCCI president, be there to encourage the youngsters.It was also the first time our youngsters saw people like Venkatesh Prasad (chairman of the BCCI’s junior selection committee), as well as Kiran More, who both came to Dimapur along with a number of BCCI coaches and physios. They conducted trials and training schedules, all of which were exciting.
After the camp got over, I saw lot of improvement in the boys who participated in the camp. I am not overly hopeful, because this is only one small initiative, but if this can be sustained, if the BCCI continue to send coaches and provide infrastructure for training, then things might get better.
When I was playing cricket, I had to move to Assam and Kolkata to play, because there was nothing in Dimapur. No good coaches, no practice infrastructure, no stadium. Now we have the Sovima Cricket Stadium, which also has floodlights. It’s only one, but it’s better than anything we have had before. Neiphiu Rio, who was the chief minister of Nagaland (from March 2003 to January 2008), helped us get the stadium. But, after that, nothing more happened. Even this time, the coaches were telling our Nagaland Cricket Association people that this has to continue. It can’t stop after one camp.
Coming back to the recent camps, it was nothing new for me, because I have seen these things in the Indian Premier League and also while playing in the domestic circuit for Assam. But it was new for everyone else. I spoke to the Naga boys – they were happy to do something different for a change. So if we continue these modules, they will have a better idea about the game, about field placements and everything else that boys in most parts of the country learn early on.
I was watching, and the coaches had to start from A-B-C. As Kiran More was saying, we have to start from scratch and then go up. We have to explain the game, the nuances of it, to the boys before they can truly appreciate cricket. Cheteshwar Pujara was also here, and it was very exciting to see him. He was quite impressed too, and said the structure and build of the boys was very good.
But the problem lies elsewhere. People in Nagaland and Manipur and Mizoram are very fit and athletic, so that’s fine. But it’s all seasonal here. For a few days everyone was excited about cricket, but now Euro 2016 is on, so everyone is watching that. People here believe in studying and then getting government jobs. Development hasn’t happened in Nagaland the same way it has happened in mainstream India. Youngsters love sports but don’t think of it as a career, because they don’t see a future.
And cricket is even further away. I could become a cricketer only because of my parents, who love cricket. Especially my mother, who always wanted me to become a cricketer. Whatever little I have achieved is because of them. But most parents in Nagaland don’t even know about cricket.
The objective in Nagaland is to settle down in life with a safe government job. Football, archery, boxing – you get jobs through sports quota for those sports, but not cricket. So there is a long way to go, but it’s not impossible.
I won’t say the association here in Nagaland hasn’t done anything. But they can’t shell out money from their own pockets to run the game. They have organised some tournaments in the past, inviting teams from the other northeastern states. But the standard is very poor. I have seen a few games, I think the boys from Mizoram and Manipur are good. But we need money, financial and infrastructural support, from the BCCI. It seems to have started, so that’s good news. I was told by an association official that Mr Thakur has also promised to clear the old money once the association sends him the details, so that will be great. He has also promised to build a centre for excellence, which will be fantastic.
If these things had happened in my time, or when Rongsen Jonathan was growing up, it would have been good. I ended up playing just four first-class matches, but Jonathan is doing better than me. He isn’t a regular for Railways, but he has played seven first-class games and also some one-day matches and Twenty20 matches.
But it won’t help if people think we can’t do well. BCCI might be thinking there is no point in investing money in north-east cricket, and that’s fair, because there is very little interest in the game here. But it can be created. Like Kiran More said, the boys here are very raw. But he also saw potential. That has to be tapped. If that is done, if the boys see a future in the game, I think things will get better.
