How Assam cricket warmed up for a dream run | Cricket News – Times of India

A deeper look at north-east team’s Vijay Hazare feat reveals rigorous restructuring since 2019, top-class coaching under head doach Trevor Gonsalves & hopes of seeing a state cricketer represent India.
Assam cricket has been the talk of India’s domestic cricket circles for the last couple of months. However, Assam’s semifinal finish in 2022 Vijay Hazare Trophy, which concluded earlier this month, is not their best performance in the domestic one-day tournament. Their best finish in the meet came about a decade ago, when Assam were beaten in the 2012-13 season final by domestic heavyweights Delhi in the coastal city of Vishakhapatnam. Interestingly, that was Delhi’s maiden Vijay Hazare Trophy crown.
Then what’s the reason behind Assam grabbing a lot of eyeballs these days?
They have beaten teams like Karnataka, Delhi and Vidarbha, among others, en route the Vijay Hazare semis, and Maharashtra narrowly beat them by 12 runs in the semifinals. In the ongoing Ranji Trophy, they opened with a point against Kerala but in the second game they fought their way back to take the first-innings lead against former champions Delhi for three points.
For a casual onlooker, it might come as an underdogs-punching-above-their-weight story. But if someone with a little more interest in domestic cricket takes a closer look, there is a lot more than what meets the eyes. For that, we must delve deeper into their success story.
A little study of the 2013 final scoreboard would throw a name in the Assam innings – Dheeraj Jadhav, a domestic stalwart from Maharashtra, who was playing for Assam as a professional then. Amol Muzumdar, S Sriram, Dheeraj and Sairaj Bahutule are some of the famous names to have represented Assam as professional players over the years.
But the recent scoreboards of matches involving Assam will not give you any such names. Because there have been some changes in structure — as well as policies — as far as Assam cricket is concerned.
After joining Assam Cricket Association (ACA) as the secretary in January 2019, Devajit Saikia led the state governing body to take decisions and make some changes that are bearing fruit now. Now elected as the joint secretary of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in October this year, Saikia elaborated on the process which they started about four years ago.
“Right after taking charge, we made some structural as well as policy changes. First is the changes in infrastructure and facilities. When we came in the association, there were only two-three proper turf wickets to play first-class matches in Assam. Now in these four years, we have undertaken 23 grounds for development and out of that, 15-16 grounds are ready now. Soil was brought from Odisha to prepare the tracks,” Saikia told TOI from Guwahati.
“Secondly, we restructured the annual calendar. Earlier there was no proper club cricket under ACA and the few local meets which were being played used to take place simultaneously with the BCCI domestic calendar. And that clash of calendars made it difficult to select the right players to represent Assam in the BCCI meets.
“Now all the 42 district units are under ACA and there’s a pool of 7000-plus cricketers in various age groups whose data is in the system, proper structure is in place now. APCC (Assam Premier Cricket Championship) is huge now, we give huge amounts of prize money, about 1 crore in the club championships and everything is under ACA,” added Saikia.
“The local calendar starts from May and goes on for the entire summer, so a player gets at least 15-20-30 matches before the selection of probables for the first-class and List A squads. It helps the selectors as well, they are doing their job without any interference now. Earlier, they had to select based on past performances or reputation but now everything is streamlined, and simple things are put in place.
“The third major policy change is we have stopped taking professionals since 2019. Earlier, we were dependent on professionals but now there’s no outstation players in Assam team. There’s no relief for the local players that professionals will take the responsibility of scoring runs or taking wickets. You have to be responsible for your own fate. So this semifinal finish in Vijay Hazare is a greater achievement than the 2013 final finish,” Saikia pointed out.
When it comes to the people directly involved in making these changes on the ground, Saikia heaps praises on the current coaching team, especially head coach Trevor Gonsalves.
“Trevor has made a huge impact on the squad. He has changed the mindset of the players, he has been instrumental in this success. I must appreciate the roles of assistant coach Subhrajit Saikia, coach-cum-manager Salil Sinha (senior team), U-25 coach Vivek Jaisimha, Ajay Ratra and Stuart Binny in this journey of Assam cricket,” said Saikia, who has been often regarded as the man who changed Assam cricket in the last four years.
Ratra was in charge of the Assam senior side since 2019 before Gonsalves took charge this season. Binny was Ratra’s deputy for the 2021-22 season.
Subhrajit, meanwhile, was the head coach in the 2012-13 season and has been closely associated with the Assam cricket team in various capacities throughout, sometimes with the age-group teams besides the senior team.
The core of the Assam squad has remained more or less same over the past few years, but that same bunch has performed as a team to fight back from difficult situations to come out winners. So, there must be some mental conditioning on top of the performances with the bat or ball.
When it comes to raising the mental toughness of the players, former India Under-19 and first-class pacer Gonsalves has certainly played a major role.
“I always say to my wards that character of a person can be known when he is down and out; not when you are going great guns. You have to do something extraordinary to be famous. People will notice your performance only if it’s against Delhi or Mumbai or Punjab or Karnataka. It has to be against the big names of domestic cricket no matter who are playing for them,” Gonsalves told TOI.
“I have made it clear to them that don’t make your Vijay Hazare performance look like a fluke. Play the ball to its merit, hit it for four or six if it’s to be hit, defend it if it’s to be defended. Don’t think you are playing Ranji Trophy or Vijay Hazare or T20. Failure makes you, so don’t be afraid, be confident,” explained the former Vidarbha coach.
Gonsalves gave a piece of his mind by declaring against Delhi just after taking the first-innings lead. “Yes, that was a mental game. It gives you an advantage when your opponents think this way, that, ‘Look, they have declared against Delhi!’ You get the edge, the upper hand here by declaring the innings,” Gonsalves said with a chuckle after the Delhi match.
With their efforts showing results, Assam look for higher reaches this season but there is a bigger dream to be realized.
With an Assam cricketer yet to wear the India colours at senior level, former ACA secretary and the chief architect of this recent success, Saikia, says, “We have full support of BCCI secretary Jay Shah who has played a big role in Assam’s success by offering all the help possible from the board’s end. However, our dream is to see one Assam player in senior India side as soon as possible. There are three-four notable performers – Riyan Parag is the frontrunner you may say, others are Rishav Das (batter), Mukhtar Hussain (left-arm medium pacer) and Rajjakuddin Ahmed (all-rounder). Though Rajjakuddin is out of squad now because of recent poor performances, all have made good progress.”