Cricket carnival sans local flavour

It`s gala time for cricket in Orissa. Five big day-night matches in space of five weeks and a Rs 56-crore mega expantion plan has turned the historic Barabati Stadium into a bee-hive of activity. The roller-coster journey starts tomorrow with India Blue taking on India Red in the opening match of the Challenger (NKP Salve) Trophy Tournament. The four-match series will serve as the basis for the selection to the Indian team for a six-match one-day series against England next month. The fifth match of the ODI series will also be played at the Barabati Stadium. But amid the carnival, cricket fraternity is upset that no one from the state has been included in any of the three sides involved in the Challenger Series. Orissa Cricket Association secretary Asirbad Behera may cite many reasons to justify, but he is not convincing. He first says that our players are not performing well to deserve inclusion in national teams and that the National selectors are strictly going by merit. But he next admits that one or two Orissa boys could have been `pushed through` if OCA president Ranjib Biswal was still a National selector. There was a time when Debasis Mohanty, Shiv Sundar Das and Sanjay Raul played Test or ODI for the country. Players including Rashmi Ranjan Parida, Sanjay Satpathy, Pravanjan Mullick, Niranjan Behera, Paresh Patel also formed part of National A and East Zone teams. Getting cash-rich is no crime. OCA is earning in crores annually because of professional marketing of the game by the state and National bodies. OCA, now a days, is also spending liberally. But priority of spending is more on generating more money than on improving the standard of the game and the players. ``If cricketers do not get adequate opportunity to perform at the state level, how can they prepare themselves to prove their ability at the National or international level,`` asked an observer. ``Our senior inter-district tournament has become a farce. OCA neither conducts any all-India tournament nor it sends teams to participate where such events are held. Where is the opportunity for players,`` he added.