(N Jagannath Das)
Imagine a three-day red-ball league match being played against a black sight screen. It may seem like an innovation. But this is what happened in reality in the local Hyderabad Cricket Association match the other day! To many an old timer, this could come as a shocker. But then this is the plight of Hyderabad cricket at the moment. It is indeed in dire straits.
To compound HCA’s woes, the Tanmay Agarwal-led Hyderabad Ranji team tasted their third successive defeat as they succumbed to Andhra at Vizianagaram on Friday. They collected one point when they just about managed to hold on to a draw against Tamil Nadu in the opening match thanks to bad light. But after that, the team lost to Mumbai, Assam, and Andhra. The writing was on the wall given the affairs of the association over the last few years.
It is not just the Ranji side but every other team, including women’s that has participated in the BCCI tournaments that have suffered humiliating defeats. There are more defeats than victories this season. If reports are to be believed, there have been biased selections that have led to disastrous showings by various teams.
This woeful performance was not a surprise to the avid follower of the game. One of the players moaned that this season HCA started the three-day league in January. “This is unheard of. Local cricket has come to a standstill. We always look forward to the new season which starts in April or May. But this season there was no three-day league till December/January which is shameful and disgusting. The parents are asking us why there are no matches. We have no answers but instead told them to ask this question to the authorities concerned,’’ said a club secretary, adding that there is no sign of two-day leagues yet and it is already past January. The cricketers are suffering for no fault of theirs. It is unfortunate.
Another club secretary said: “We just finished our first 3-day league match of this season yesterday (Thursday) and I was so disgusted with the way we had to play. As HCA is not making payments to the ground owners, no grounds are being given for matches and we had to pay for the ground to play an official league match, and do the rolling for the pitch ourselves.’’The league matches are crucial and they carry that form to Ranji and the BCCI matches. This time with no leagues, it has resulted in a poor show.
If there are hardly any three-day matches being conducted, it is because of individual efforts. “We pooled Rs 750 from each player and gave them to the ground staff for a ground to play a three-day match. A red-ball match being played with a black sight screen is unheard of. But it happened. There are about 150 grounds in and around the city. But there is hardly any activity on any of the grounds. Luckily, the BCCI matches are played either at Uppal Stadium or Gymkhana ground. We are in a helpless position.’’
Hyderabad, which has a rich history and tradition, has become a laughing stock. Hope the Supervisory Committee takes a serious view of this matter and sets things right.
In the past the season was full of local tournaments like 3-day league, 3-day knock outs, Kishen Pershad, Behram ud Dowla etc that kept the cricketers busy. At least till the 90s, huge crowd used to throng for big matches which involved teams like Andhra Bank, Stndicate Bank, State Bank of India, State Bank of Hyderabad, MCC. But now it is a thing of the past. There is lot of uncertainty whether the matches will be held or not.
