The Battle of
Kohima was the turning point of the Japanese offensive into India in 1944
during the Second World War. The battle
is often referred to as the "Stalingrad of the East". The place of occurrence, Nagaland in North East India borders Assom, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Burma. The state is inhabited by 16 tribes, each tribe
is unique in character with its own distinct customs, language and dress. The
state has experienced insurgency as well as inter-ethnic conflict since the
1950s.
This no post on
geography but something on its poor performance in the game of Cricket. To be fair to them, this was the first time that
Nagaland and five other north-eastern states of India - Arunachal Pradesh,
Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim - were cleared to participate in the
BCCI's Under-19 women's tournament along with Bihar, through the addition of
Under-19 North-East Championship, specifically for these states. Nagaland made
it to the Super League stage after finishing second in the North-East
Championship, behind Bihar. Most players in the Nagaland team are 15- and
16-year-olds.
"The Nagaland
Cricket Association was struggling to put a team together because we didn't
have any academy for girls," its Coach is quoted as saying. "We had to put out advertisements in the
local newspapers, which is when the girls started coming to the academy. All of
the nine students enrolled in the academy are part of this squad." "We
had to start from scratch because all the girls are completely raw. In their
first training session none of the girls knew what skills they specialize in.
Yes, there have are a lot of loopholes to plug, but one needs to understand
these girls have only started playing cricket."
Low scores and odd
bowling stats have been a frequent occurrence in the tournament, including
during the regional qualifying stages. In the North-Eastern Championship, a
match Nagaland featured in, against Manipur, had 136 wides. Bihar, the other
side to qualify for the Super League, were skittled for 21 runs by Bengal in a
match in Jamshedpur on Friday. Before Friday, the lowest total in the tournament
was 17 by Meghalaya, incidentally, against Nagaland.
But this one was very different.. The BCCI’s U-19 women’s one-day super league
match between Kerala and Nagaland on Friday ended in farce as the Northeastern
state was shot out for just two runs with as many nine batters getting out for
duck here. Electing to bat after winning
the toss, Nagaland were all out for just 2 runs from 17 overs in an astonishing
display. Nine batters were out for duck while opener Menka scored one run (off
18 balls) from the only scoring shot of the innings in the Group B match at JKC
college ground here. Priyanka remained not out on nought after facing three
deliveries.
Th Kerala notched
up the win -- to pocket four points -- added to the farcical nature of the
match. Nagaland’s Deepika Kaintura bowled a wide and from the other legitimate
ball, Kerala opener Ansu S Raju scored a boundary to win the match by 10
wickets. Kerala reached 5 for no loss in 0.1 overs while chasing 3 for a win
with Ansu S Raju not out on 4. The Nagaland team provided on the BCCI website
had only their first names except for two. Most of their names appeared to be
of players hailing from outside the state.
As per the Lodha
Committee recommendations, the BCCI will now have to include the Northeastern
states in their accredited tournaments.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
25th Nov. 2017
