Why Rajasthan Crickets Golden Run May be Over

[Zelch]

The Rajasthan state cricket team created history when it won the Ranji Trophy in 2011. For good measure the team repeated its performance in 2012 beating Tamil Nadu to retain it. ItÃÔ barely over a month since this happened, but matters are already looking bad for the state. Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) President CP Joshi has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, both on and off the field. Joshi suspended Sanjay Dixit as RCA secretary in July 2011 and the Association formally sacked him in February 2012. The reason for his firing is that he wasnÃÕ responding to letters from the disciplinary committee and that his tweets and outbursts against the RCA were causing harm. Now, Dixit is an IAS officer who put into place much needed changes in the RCA that helped the team win twice. He was the guy who got in professionals like Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Aakash Chopra to mould a bunch of motley cricketers into a side that could compete at the highest level in domestic cricket. Read Udit MisraÃÔ account of that journey here. The real reason for DixitÃÔ sacking, most probably, is he has patched up with former friend-turned-foe Lalit Modi, and from their interactions on Twitter it looks like Dixit and Modi are planning to stage a sort of a joint comeback in the RCA. Go back to 2005 and you will see that it was under Modi that the RCA constructed a state-of-the-art cricket academy in Jaipur which acted as the base for RajasthanÃÔ cricketers to train and better themselves. Modi and Dixit were buddies then. By 2009, Dixit began to question ModiÃÔ way of running the RCA and defeated him in elections that year. Modi had to leave the RCA. If you take a simplistic view of things, Joshi is doing to Dixit what Dixit had done to Modi. All that wouldnÃÕ matter if Joshi would continue the good work on the field or at least wouldnÃÕ interfere with the way the team was playing. However, he has denied the professional players a share of the money that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had given them for winning the Trophy. The RCA clubbed the three professional players: Kanitkar, Chopra and Rashmi Ranjan Parida, as non-playing members and is giving them less money than the ÃÓegulars?:omg: This is stupid because Kanitkar is the captain and the wealth of experience that the trio have brought cannot be measured in tangible terms. The players are obviously angry. Ÿe have yet to make a decision on our next yearÃÔ contracts. We have played and performed with as much enthusiasm as anyone else in the team and this is uncalled for, says one of them. The regular players in Rajasthan havenÃÕ reached a level where they can put in good performances year after year without expert help. Kanitkar, Chopra and Parida were doing a very important job for the RCA. It wouldnÃÕ be too much of a stretch to say that if other lower-ranked associations adopt similar strategies, the level of domestic cricket in India would rise dramatically. ItÃÔ not like the RCA is strapped for funds. It gets a minimum of Rs.10 crore from the BCCI every year. It has made good use of the funds in the last 5-7 years unlike most other state associations. Now, it looks like it is going back to the dark years where politics and pettiness ruled. Read more: http://forbesindia.com/blog/business-strategy/why-rajasthan-crickets-golden-run-may-be-over/#ixzz1njZoi7XU

These chootaR cricket associations get 10 Crore per year which they squander or steal like thugs. If that money is put to work efficiently imagine the kind of support staff each ranji team can hire, the state-wide infrastructure they can develop for affiliated local leagues.