A five-year deal has been inked to start the Grassroots Cricket School initiative
A five-year deal has been inked to start the Grassroots Cricket School initiative
Samagra Shiksha is batting on a new pitch in Mizoram, a State not too clued in on cricket. Few States in India are as heavily invested in football as Mizoram, yielding the State an assembly line of footballers. Mizoram has also focussed its attention on popularising boxing and other contact sports.
But the realisation that the State’s youth were missing out on the most “happening and paying” sport in India made Samagra Shiksha, Mizoram (SSM) add cricket to its primary goal of ensuring equitable and inclusive quality education from pre-school to senior secondary level.
The Centre had launched Samagra Shiksha in April 2018 for extending support in school education to States by subsuming the Sarva Shikha Abhiyan, the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and the Teacher Education programmes.
“This is for the first time anywhere in the country that Samagra Shiksha has tied up with a sports organisation, that too for cricket, in a State where the sport is hardly followed,” Lalhmachhuana, SSM’s State project director, told Today News 24.
‘Need ace cricketers’
“Our goal is to groom our athletic children to become ace cricketers. We want to see some of them, both boys and girls, representing the country or playing in major tournaments of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the next five years,” he said.
Mamon Majumdar, the secretary of the Cricket Association of Mizoram (CAM), said he had been pursuing the idea of an academic-cricket collaboration with SSM for some time. It fructified in April with the inking of a five-year deal between CAM and SSM for starting Grassroots Cricket School.
The programme was launched on August 18 at 10 centres in as many schools in Aizawl. Each centre enrolled 50 children, with one of them exclusively for girls.
Striking gender balance
“Apart from the girls-only centre, it was made mandatory for the other centres to enrol at least 10 girls to strike a gender balance. The programme entailing cricket practice at least thrice a week has been designed to not affect the studies of the students,” Mr. Lalhmachhuana said.
According to the deal, CAM will take care of preparing the grounds, providing coaches and cricket kits for the students, while SSM will assign a coordinator for each centre from among existing teachers to assess the athletic and academic progress of the children every month.
Search for a new stadium
The 21,081 sq. km State has only one cricket stadium at Sihhmui, about 20 km from Aizawl. Named after Suaka, the father of a Guwahati-based businessman who provided the land, the stadium completed in 2014 is at the core of the CAM’s struggle for BCCI affiliation.
“In order to cut the travel time of the cricketers, we have requested Chief Minister Zoramthanga and Sports Minister Robert Romawia Royte to provide land in and around Aizawl. With the BCCI’s help, we will build a cricket field as and when the land is provided,” Mr. Majumdar, who is also a member of the IPL governing council, said.
The State government has agreed in principle to find the right spot but the terrain of Aizawl, straddling some hills at an average altitude of 1,132 metres above sea level, is likely to make the search difficult.
For the time being, the CAM has prepared an indoor facility and 12 practice pitches with nets for the students of the 10 grassroots schools to hone their batting, bowling and fielding skills.
Seven coaches who completed their Level 1 course from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru are currently guiding the children who will play inter-centre matches before travelling to Sihhmui for bigger tournaments.
“The BCCI has instructed the NCA to especially run courses for coaches, curators and other specialists in the Northeast. We have 22 more coaches undergoing their Level 1 course while a couple is going for Level 2,” Mr. Majumdar said.
Widening cricket pool
Mr. Lalhmachhuana said the State has a plan to add at least 5,000 male and female cricketers to the country’s cricket pool. This will be done by opening more centres under the Grassroots Cricket School initiative every year until the entire State is covered.
The initiative would also entail exposure trips for the the cricketers to other States and the most promising ones will be sent to the NCA. “As it is, we send our senior teams outside Mizoram for two-three months before BCCI tournaments start,” Mr Majumdar said.
He hoped the teams of the future would be able to train and practice at home once the Grassroots Cricket School programme takes a firm hold in Mizoram.
