This evening as I returned
home ~ could see MA Chidambaram stadium glowing – yes, the flood lights were on
.. .. sadly could recall the IPL match 2018 that was marred by outside demonstrations and
subsequent decision to shift CSK matches out of Chennai. No IPL to Chennai is not totally new – there
have been controversies, with lankan players barred for a couple of seasons,
matches played with 3 stands kept empty, CSK barred for a couple of seasons and
more ! – now TNPL, the interesting T20 tournament beckoning !!
Those of us watching
Cricket for decades – have been to MA Chidambaram stadium fondly the Chepauk
and many other smaller ones like the Marina stadium, University Union,
Gurunanak, AC Tech, India Pistons stadium, Pachaiyappas and more….. places
where cricket matches are played. It is
ten years since the first match in IPL
was played in 2008. Ten full years since
Brendon McCullum smashed 158* for Kolkata Knight Riders – between and more so,
much has changed since Chennai Super Kings last played Rajasthan Royals in
2015. Shane Watson switched camps.
Suresh Raina missed an IPL game in
yellow jersey ~ MA Chidambaram Stadium could not host CSK's home matches this season. .. .. all
that was forgotten when Dhoni successfully led to another title triumph.
We have been following
news that 16 outstation cricketers will
feature in the upcoming third edition of the Sankar Cement-sponsored Tamil Nadu
Premier League for the first time, as it
was announced that two uncapped
other-state Indian players would turn out for each of the eight franchises. A total of 112 players from 13 state associations,
namely Baroda, Karnataka, Kerala, Hyderabad, Andhra, Goa, Saurashtra,
Madhyapradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir, registered for the
outstation Player draft of TNPL 2018 which was held at the MA Chidambaram
Stadium in Chennai on Wedneday.
The TNPL has clearly grown
in stature over the past two seasons with a number of players picked by IPL
franchises. Franchises will be allowed to field both outstation players in the
playing XI, the organisers announced. TNPL-3, comprising 32 matches and spread
over 33 days across three venues, is scheduled to be held between July 11 and August 12. However, it was restrained that such
outstation players : should be uncapped for the Nation; should have NOC from
their association; and .. .. .. and should never have been a part of any IPL –
2018 franchise.. now even that is not allowed !!
News reports suggest that Tamil
Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) has challenged the Supreme Court-appointed
Committee of Administrators (CoA) directive, which prevents outstation players
from participating in T20 leagues, saying it exhibits "a complete and
utter disregard" for the interests of players, depriving them of the
opportunity to "earn a living" and "showcase their talents to
the world". The state association further accused the CoA of arbitrariness
and malice in forming the rule. TNCA's response came after the CoA wrote an
email to the association asking that it desist from having outstation players
play in the 20-over Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) following the strict
guidelines issued for domestic T20 leagues.
TNCA had wanted outstation
players to be able to participate in the TNPL, but the guidelines not only
barred that, but also further said that all support staff and match officials
part of any league also had to be from the home association. The CoA said that
in its communique to the TNCA that "pursuant to the decision of the
working committee at its meeting(s) held on 13th August 2009 and 24th June
2016, BCCI does not grant permission to any member to allow participation of
players from outside the jurisdiction of the said member in the T20 tournament
being organised or conducted by any member.
Somehow this is only seen
as another attempt to quell TNPL and not allowing the game to grow. The Q remains "How will giving 16
players who haven't got an opportunity to play in the IPL be detrimental?"
that would only have benefitted cricketers." It is also
pointed out that outstation
players had been taking part in Tamil Nadu state-run tournaments since several
decades.
"Brijesh Patel, K R
Rajagopal, Sunil Valson, Vivek Razdan, AW Zaidi have played in 1st Division League and
the like. So did players of the caliber of Rahul Dravid, Zaheer Khan, Venkatesh
Prasad, Vikram Rathore, Venkatapathy Raju, Arshad Hyub, Suith Somasundar. Even currently players like Piyush Chawla,
Sandeep Sharma, Robin Bist, Srikar Bharath, A G Pradeep still play in league
tournament at TNCA. However, the
tournaments that these tournaments aren't in the T20 format ~ but do they make
any difference ?
Another report suggested that
- Brad Hogg, the mercurial chinaman bowler, who has got 320 wickets across all
formats for Australia will do the commentary for the first time at Sankar
Cement TNPL. The 47 year old, western Australian has a hectic schedule this
month travelling to Tirunelveli - last
year Dean Jones, Scott Styris were all part of the group that travelled to
Dindigul, Tuticorin for TNPL matches.
I remember seeing Krish
Srikkanth hoisting Hoshidhar Contractor for a straight six – on another day
closer to lunch, after a beautiful cover drive and one straight down, Cheeka
pulling Sandhu in the hands of a lone fielder ........ and we all parting the
ground sadly. Apart from TN stars S.
Venkatraghavan, Dalvi, Belliappa, TE Srinivasan, Kalyanasundaram, Mukund, R Vasudevan, Arunkumar, Bharatkumar, Cheeka,
VB Chandrasekhar, V Siva, CS Suraishkumar, B Arun, WV Raman - some names that
readily come to mind are : Parthasarathi Sharma, Brijesh Patel, Kirmani,
Rajinder Hans, Eknath Solkar, Ashok Mankad, Jyoti Prasad, Ramnarayan, K
Jayanthilal, Shivlal Yadav, Dhiraj Parsanna, Sandhu, Ghavri .... and more playing
in Buchi Babu tournament...... Those days it was dominated by teams from Bombay
(Mafatlal & Nirlons) - Ashok Mankad
was hailed a shrewd leader bringing in youngsters, who went on to become
popular later (Lalchand Rajput, Hattangadi, Jignesh Sanghani, Contractor ....) .. .. also there were regular matches between
Tamil Nadu and Ceylon in MJ Gopalan trophy.
For the match-starved fans
of Chennai, the ruling barring other state players in TNPL is another cruel
blow, this time, from the Cricket administrators
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
9th July 2018.
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