Shillong, Dec 6: East Jaintia Hills District Cricket Association became the 11th district association to be included as a full member of the Meghalaya Cricket Association, it was announced at the annual general body meeting of the MCA, which was held here on Saturday.
The meeting also saw the felicitation of coaches, junior video analysts and scorers who passed the National Cricket Academy certificate courses in the last year. They are Leonard Wankhar, Neetesh Sharma, Sudesh Pradhan, Synrapsing Riahtam and Moisten Ch Marak as Level 1 coaches, Donboklang R Lyngdoh, Salmitmat D Marak, Nishan Singh Nahar and Meinam Amit Singh as video analysts and Evert Nelson Mawlong as BCCI manual scorer.
Speaking on the occasion, MCA President Danny Marak said that the MCA has been participating in various national level tournaments under different age categories conducted by the BCCI. The youth of the state has thus had the opportunity of getting adequate exposure in going to other states and participating and have even come out triumphant against much higher-ranked teams. He requested the budding young cricketers to take this opportunity to come forward to make the state proud by showcasing their talent and win laurels which can further their career as a cricketer and a good human being.
“With hard work, discipline and a focused mind, I am sure that one can go up to the highest levels. While there are still challenges in infrastructure development, the MCA can now boast of having two standard playing grounds, one at Shillong and the other at Tura,” he added.
Naba Bhattacharjee, former Honorary Secretary and Convener Task Force BCCI (in charge of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Bihar), while giving the keynote address at the inaugural function, talked of cricket amidst Covid-19. He said that there are challenges ahead for a new cricket state like Meghalaya because of the need to comply with the standard operating procedures of the government. The state witnessed a steep progress in the last season but since the pandemic the young boys and girls have been idle and thus need to work even harder to face competitive cricket in the country.
“Even till this date, various states in the country doubted the BCCI’s admission of the new states from the North East, but the defeat of Mumbai by Meghalaya in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament has kept them mum,” he added.
He reminded the gathering how he and a few others built cricket brick by brick in the state. Now that the state can have multiple grounds in the various districts (the MCA has singed agreements to develop cricket grounds in Nongkrah, Nongpoh; Mawten, Mawkyrwat; and Mawiawet, Nongstoin) is due to the difficult times the MCA had in the past as far as getting recognition from the BCCI is concerned. He stressed on the need to build infrastructure and develop personnel at the district level.
MCA Honorary Secretary, Gideon Kharkongor, presented the activity report for 2019-20 while Treasurer Dhrubajyoti Thakuria presented the financial report for the year. All other districts presented their reports and requirements for the growth and development of cricket.
(Meghalaya Cricket Association photo)
