Cricket selection: NCA responds to charge of anomaly

Dimapur, March 31 (EMN): The Nagaland Cricket Association (NCA) has issued a statement seeking to allay recent reports in the media concerning alleged anomalies in the selection procedures for  players  to  the state’s cricket team. Bendang Jamir, vice president of the NCA, appended the press release which was received here on Sun. March 31. The NCA elaborated the procedures of selection to Nagaland team’s various categories. The state currently has teams playing in the BCCI tournaments in both men’s and women’s categories in the senior; and u23, u19 and u16 categories. “As per the norms of the BCCI, each state team is allowed three guest players from outside the state in each team. For the purpose of selecting guest players, trials are conducted in which players from all over the country can come and participate and submit their playing records,” the NCA stated. All selected guest players have to obtain a no-objection certificate from their respective state and undergo the online registration process of the board, the NCA stated. Further, the NCA stated that all “local” players also have to submit relevant documents of birth, local inhabitant, local student or local employment certificate, medical proof of age through X-Ray reports, etc. These documents, the association stated, are submitted to the board through the online registration process and the approved lists of registered players are released by the board after scrutiny. “An unregistered player cannot play a single match as she or he will not be allowed to take the field by the match referees and officials.” The group stated that Nagaland has participated in the Ranji Trophy for only a season so far. It has only two first class players who had played at this level for other states: Jonathan Longkumer and Hokaito Zhimomi. “Their NOCs were obtained after they had agreed to shift to Nagaland and accordingly they were registered with Nagaland,” the NCA stated. Here, the association justified that the Nagaland team being a nascent and first time-team at this highest level, “It is necessary for us to use the provision of the guest players in order to ensure that we have a reasonably respectable team in all the categories.” The NCA stated that the game was not a most popular game among the indigenous youth “due to a combination of various factors.” A similar problem is in the girls and women’s categories: “It is even more difficult to get a sizeable pool of indigenous players in the respective teams but it is encouraging to note that the present under-23 girls’ team has 8 indigenous players who are doing quite well.” As for ‘outside players,’ the NCA explained that “all our teams have players from outside Nagaland representing the state from the rest of the country under the guest player category.” This is the norm for many states, especially in the new state teams of the Northeast, the press release stated. “We hope that in the coming years we will not require guest players but as of now it is necessary for good performances and also to improve our local standards. As per the norms, any citizen born in Nagaland, even if presently based outside, is eligible to be registered as a local player but we continue to make efforts to promote local Naga cricketers.” The organisation informed that currently during the non-playing season, the association has been conducting trials for “local” indigenous players who have been invited from all the districts to participate. The information for trials for players from all districts have been publicised, the NCA stated. At the time of writing this report, the trials for u19 boys’ and fitness camps for seniors Naga players have begun from March 30 and April 2, according to the press release. “We continue to make efforts to promote the game locally to ensure that our own players reach the standards where they can play at the higher levels. The association is also regularly conducting training, workshops and seminars for coaches, video analysts, grounds curators, etc in order to groom our own human resource and infrastructure,” the NCA stated. The association announced that the National Cricket Academy will be conducting the zone cricket camp (u19 boys)  at Nagaland Cricket Stadium, Sovima from April 15 during which participants and players from Arunachal, Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Puducherry and Nagaland will attend, the NCA stated. The factor of academics that the players must have to pursue was another reason the NCA gave. “Another factor which we have faced is that the competitive season lasts for 3 to 6 months and many of our local cricketers opt out after selection as the playing season coincides with academic examinations here and players are required to be available for the whole duration which begins from the trails, camps, tournaments and then zonal camps.” “Documentation also remains a challenge for our local youth for which we have a proper assistance cell as many players fail to get registered due to poor documentation.”