East Jaintia Hills District Cricket Association now officially affiliated to MCA

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaDecember 6, 2020

East Jaintia Hills District Cricket Association became the 11^th District Association to be included as a full affiliated member of the Meghalaya Cricket Association (MCA) in the Annual General Body meeting of the MCA held on Saturday.

The other affiliated districts being SCA, TDCA, East Khasi, West Khasi, South West, Ri Bhoi, All Jaintia, North Garo, South Garo and East Garo Hills District Cricket Associations.

The meet also felicitated the coaches, junior video analyst and scorer passing the National Cricket Academy certificate courses in the last one year. They are Leonard Wankhar, Neetesh Sharma, Sudesh Pradhan, Synrapsing Riahtam,Moisten Ch Marak as Level 1 coaches, Donboklang R Lyngdoh, Salmitmat D Marak, Nishan Singh Nahar & Meinam Amit Singh as Video Analyst 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 has 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 a keynote address at the inaugural function talked of Cricket amidst Covid. He said that there are challenges ahead furthermore for a new state like Meghalaya because of the pandemic complying to the SOPs 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 needs 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 T20 tournament has kept them mummed,” he added. He reminded the gathering on how he along with few others build cricket brick by brick in the state. Now that the state can have multiple grounds at the districts is due to the difficult times MCA had in the past as far as getting recognition from BCCI is concerned. He stressed on the need to build infrastructure and personnels at the district levels.  

Honorary Secretary Gideon Kharkongor presented the Activity report for 2019-20 while Mr Dhrubajyoti Thakuria presented the Financial Report for 2019-20. All other districts presented their reports and requirements for the growth and development of cricket. Meanwhile the grassroot coaching camp ‘Catch em Young’ is being organized in all the districts. The MCA has signed agreements with land owners at Nongkrah ( Nongpoh) under RBDCA, Mawten (Mawkyrwat)  under  SWKHDCA and Mawiawet (Nongstoin) under WKHDCA for development of cricket grounds.