[caption id="attachment_214496" align="alignnone" width="551"]
A view of Nagaland Cricket Stadium at Sovima in Dimapur. (EM Images)[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Oct. 25: The domestic cricket championship—Ranji Trophy which is all set to begin from November 1 will have Nagaland playing for the first time the same day at the Nagaland Cricket Stadium at Sovima in Dimapur.
Cricket in Nagaland and the other north eastern states ' cricket associations have indeed come from a long way. The hurdles that the North East Cricket Development Committee along with the cricket associations of the north eastern states of India had to confront in order to achieve the present status is worth mentioning.
Interacting with Eastern Mirror, vice president of Nagaland Cricket Association (NCA), Bendang Jamir said: “After a long fight (3 to 4 years) with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Nagaland Cricket Association has got a full affiliation.”
Many of the states in the mainland were against giving the Ranji Trophy berth to the north eastern states owing to the fact that “they (mainland states) know how to play cricket, and don’t want us to be included,” Jamir said.
“It was only after the effort of Lodha Commission, the Supreme Court gave a verdict to allow Northeast states to be affiliated with the BCCI. Now, we got the chance to play the Ranji trophy for the first time in the history,” Jamir added.
Leaving aside Assam and Tripura, the other Northeast states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Nagaland, the Ranji Trophy will be the first of its kind in the history.
The secretary of North East Cricket Development Committee, Abu Metha, also tweeted: “
It took years and years-tons of work & effort & loads of critics-but we strived on for our love of #cricket & our dreams for youngsters. A new journey begins & new challenges will come with highs & lows but it’s indeed historic. Thanks to all well wishes for trust & hope in us.”
NCA will be hosting four matches in four days, with the first match between the host state Nagaland and Mizoram.
Although, renovation work is still going on at the cricket stadium in Sovima, it is expected to be complete before the match.
The NCA is selecting the “probable candidates” from nine districts of Nagaland and providing coaching facilities, free accommodation at the stadium.
