BCCI to Construct Cricket Stadium in Meghalaya

Shillong, May 12 : Cricket is still in its infancy in Meghalaya as the lack of a proper cricket stadium in the state has upset the Meghalaya State cricket association for long.

Despite the fact that the Board of Cricket Control in India is ready to invest crores of rupees to build up stadium in Meghalaya, the State cricket association is still helpless, thanks to the casual attitude of the state government.

Over the past decade, many of India's star players have emerged from the cricketing hinterland but ironically, nobody from the Northeast region has donned India colors in any version of the game till date.

After granting its affiliation to the various Cricket associations in region, BCCI has categorically stated that if the government can come forward or the MCA can get a relatively flat ground of 18 to 20 acres immediately the BCCI is ready to invest Rs 40 to 50 crore and build Stadium with modern state of the art facilities.

However, the state authorities have made unheard the repeated appeal of the Association to give them land. While the state Government often crumbles upon on their stability issue the scope for development has become limited these days. In such case such a big offer from BCCI is bound to go unheard.

However, Meghalaya cricket association has repeatedly urged upon the state authorities to give them the unused lands which are lying vacant in the town but to add to the woes of MCA no helping hand has till date come forward.

This has become an important issue for MCA as the BCCI is all set to organize a weeklong camp in Shillong from the 17th of this month to scout for and nurture talent from the Northeast.

Barring Assam and Tripura, who are full members of the BCCI, five players each from Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland will be attending the Shillong camp to be conducted by National Cricket Academy.

The idea of the apex cricket body is to initiate activities at regular intervals, primarily to encourage more boys and girls, umpires and scorers to get involved with a platform to harness their talent in different aspects of the game.