SICA Selectors Visits National Cricket Academy
Four selectors of the Sikkim Cricket Association (SICA) Gyaphel Tshering Bhutia, Bikash Pradhan, Dhiraj Gurung and Karma Thendup Bhutia are on an educational tour to Bengaluru and Goa on the advice of the President of SICA. The tour was mainly planned to visit the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) in Bengaluru and see the facility and infrastructure they possess, to know the game and skill development programs they follow for players, fitness and selection procedure to be followed for different categories. The Mining Cricket Ground is under construction and SICA is planning to get the best facility they can provide to the players, and develop cricket in the state, so these tours will help SICA get the idea of what kind of facilities one can have in the future.
During their visit to NCA, the selectors met Rahul Dravid (Director of Cricket Operation, NCA), Tufan Ghosh (Chief Operating Officer), Narendra Hirwani (Bowling Coach, NCA), Roger Binny (President of KSCA). All of them helped the selectors see the facilities and answered their queries. They also stated that they are willing to support in every possible way they can to the Northeast states like Sikkim, who are newly introduced to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as the full member and allowed to participate in 14 different National Level tournaments.
Selectors with Roger Binney – The President of Karnataka State Cricket Association
After Bengaluru, they went to Goa where Sikkim was playing their first Ranji Trophy match of the season 2019-20 against Goa. The reason behind seeing the match was that they wanted to see how the players who have been selected for the trophy perform in the match and handles themselves in the match situations. The selectors are the responsible person to make a team and they can do it better once they know the actual match scenario and all aspects of it. So it was important for them to see some matches live for the bigger exposure which will help them in future team building.
“It was a successful tour and we are thankful to SICA for giving us this opportunity to visit various facilities, meet important personalities of the sport. We have learned many things for this tour and will apply it incoming day to our procedures and surely it will help the cricket grow in a positive way in the State.” – says the selectors of SICA.