‘BPL’ draws huge crowds, IPL and Ranji players, but JKCA bars its own cricketers

‘BPL’ draws huge crowds, IPL and Ranji players, but JKCA bars its own cricketers

Bijbehara: Bijbehara Premier League (BPL), the biggest cricket league in Kashmir, is receiving resounding public support with hundreds of people thronging the cricket field to watch matches and dozens of players from across India coming to participate in this tournament.
The Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, however, is playing the perfect spoilsport. It has banned all players registered with the association from participating in any “unrecognised” tournaments.
“The fact that this ban has again come in force at a time when BPL is being conducted is testimony to the fact that JKCA is doing everything in its power to restrict the phenomenal growth of the game in this south Kashmir town,” players who have been barred from participating in the league told Kashmir Reader.
They did not want to be named for fear of reprisal by the JKCA, they said.
JKCA had issued a similar diktat last year as well, while BPL was proving to be a success in the very first year of its inception. This year twenty teams are participating in the tournament.
“In today’s match, we have at least five Ranji players participating from different parts of India. Three players from outside participated yesterday, and they have been all praise for the wicket and the atmosphere here,” one of the members of the organising body told Kashmir Reader.
Sunrisers Hyderabad star batsman Abhishek Sharma said that he has seen very few wickets in India like the one in Bijbehara. “The wicket supported pace as well as batting. It is an incredible pitch,” Sharma told media persons after clinching the man of the match award in one of the league matches.
Despite all this success and the BPL’s huge role in taking the game forward in Kashmir, the JKCA is not allowing its players to participate and perform – thus keeping them away from an opportunity to rub shoulders with professional players from outside the state.
“Round the year hundreds of different leagues are played across the valley. There is no such diktat for those leagues, but when BPL gets underway the JKCA ensures to create hurdles,” the players that Kashmir Reader talked to said.
Sources told Kashmir Reader that the sole reason for this meanness of the JKCA is its hostility towards Parvez Rasool, the only player from Kashmir valley who has represented India at the international level, and who is involved in the organising of the BPL.
“It is evident in their actions. Last year, they accused him of stealing a pitch-roller,” a source in the JKCA said.
Before the pitch-roller accusation, Anil Gupta, who is on a three-member sub-committee to run JKCA, had written in a Facebook post on Rasool’s meeting with Lt Governor Manoj Sinha: “Give him a long rope so that he can hang himself. He is definitely being propped up and has backing.”
If this was not enough, the JKCA, as per sources, might soon be intervening to stop the inclusion of players from outside in the BPL. “They are now approaching players from outside and may prevent them from participating in BPL,” the sources said.
Kashmir Reader tried to get the JKCA version. While Mithun Manhas and Sunil Sethi did not attend calls made by this reporter, Anil Gupta’s number was switched off. The trio comprise the 3-member sub-committee running JKCA as of now.

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