Editor,
The performance of the Meghalaya cricket team in the recently concluded BCCI tournaments is really appalling. This includes not only the senior team but also the teams for the under-25, under -19 as well as the under-16 teams. Their performance is so bad that it really hurt me as a big follower of cricket and who always follows the performance of our team whenever they play in different tournaments conducted by the BCCI. I know it is not easy to compete with other state teams from mainland India but to be beaten by such huge margins in each and every match in all age categories is very hard to digest. No doubt we once won against Mumbai in a T20 tournament in 2019 as well as against Jammu and Kashmir in this year’s Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, but these wins cannot overshadow the fact that there is something wrong in the affairs of Meghalaya cricket. Now who will answer for such embarrassing performances? No doubt it is The Meghalaya Cricket Association who will have to take the blame for this.
I really sympathize with the players who went and played without much preparation and who don’t have better practice facilities compared with other states of India. But what about the money that the BCCI sent to the Meghalaya Cricket Association? Is the money being used for the development of players especially Junior cricket ? Was the money used to build infrastructures for better facilities so that players can practice throughout the year? Is sending the players to Pondicherry for a preparatory camp making them competitive enough to compete with the best domestic teams in India? It is not that I expect my state team to win all the time but I want our state team to at least compete since winning and losing is part of the game. I don’t think that The Meghalaya Cricket Association conducted a review after the end of each and every tournament. I don’t care what the MCA does with the money but as a big follower of cricket I want to see better facilities for our players.
Long time back the Assam cricket association before the start of the Ranji Trophy, used to send their state team to play in The Buchi Babu tournament conducted by the Tamil Nadu cricket association to prepare their players for the season ahead. The question is why can’t Meghalaya do the same by sending our team to at least play in tournaments in West Bengal or in Assam so that our batsmen can play against better bowlers and our bowlers can bowl to better batsmen? This is the only way for our players to improve. To be blunt I don’t even think that our state team can win against a top club cricket team in Assam. I don’t think that our players lack ability but I think we don’t have a proper structure to develop our cricket and I believe that Meghalaya Cricket Association should come up with a better infrastructure to develop and improve cricket especially at the junior level so that in four or five years time we can see our teams competent enough to compete with others.
I want to remind the Meghalaya Cricket Association that there are scores of followers of cricket in Meghalaya and that from next year onwards we as committed fans expect that MCA should take the initiative to overhaul the old system and to come up with a new system and a road map for the improvement of cricket in Meghalaya.
Yours etc.,
Vincent Thangkhiew,
Via email
Issues over Laban Post Office
Editor,
The post office is undoubtedly an important public service provider and covers every nook and corner of the country. Unfortunately there is no post office within the jurisdiction of Laban which has Post office is undoubtedly an important public service provider and are covering the masses at every nook and corner of the country. Unfortunately there is no post office within the jurisdiction of Laban which has been shifted and is now operating under General Post office of Shillong. I vividly remember the day which was July 2021 when I had to send a parcel . It took almost an hour to reach the post office owing to traffic snarls. Totally drenched in rain I puffed to go upstairs but I was told that they don’t accept bookings for parcels. It took another hour to stand in a queue at the General Post Office counter.
Very recently when I went to Laban post office (still operating under General Post office building)with a friend an elderly lady in her seventies, she huffed and puffed and complained that the post office is “sometimes up and sometimes down”
Is the media aware of this? Will the concerned authorities of the Postal Department take concrete steps to serve the public residing under Laban locality.
Yours etc.,
Ram Nath
Via email