Ranjib Biswal becomes NCA chairman

Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) tasted mixed luck in the distribution of responsibilities by the BCCI in its annual general meeting at Mumbia today.
OCA, the richest sports body of the state, made a major gain with its president Ranjib Biswal getting nominated as chairman of the National Cricket Academy. But OCA suffered a setback as its all-out effort to make state senior team coach Debasis Mohanty the East Zone representative of BCCI`s senior selection committee proved to be failure.

After hectic parleys among top office-bearers of five state cricket associations of eastern zone, the post finally went to former India stumper Saba Karim. According to inside sources the former India swing bowler Mohanty failed to get the post due to strong opposition by Cricket Association of Bengal. But according to OCA president Biswal, the biggest obstacle for Mohanty was the fact that he is yet to retire from competitive cricket. However, the BCCI provided some consolation to Mohanty by nominating him as a member of the Technical Committee.

Besides Biswal and Mohanty, five office-bearers of OCA were accommodated in different committees of the BCCI. Among them, OCA secretary Asirbad Behera was named as member of the Marketing Committee, treasurer Satya Mohanty was taken in as member of the Umpires Committee, while joint-secretaries Rabi Sankar Pratihari, Sanjib Kumar Dutta and Siba Prasad Tripathy were nominated as members of Corporate Trophy Committee, Museum Committee and Media Committee respectively.