GUWAHATI: The Meghalaya Cricket Association (MCA) has welcomed BCCI’s assurance to set up a state-of-the-art branch of the National Cricket Academy in Assam.
BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, during his visit to the Assam Cricket Association Stadium at Barsapara on Saturday had said that the work on the ultra modern cricket academy, which would facilitate cricketers of the entire Northeastern region, including Sikkim, would start as soon as the land required for the project is allocated by the Assam government.
“I wholeheartedly welcome the move which was unanimously adopted in the NADP meeting in Kolkata on April 3, 2016. Among the minutes of the meeting which I had attended as member coordination, was that the BCCI would establish an academy exclusively for the Northeastern states, preferably in Guwahati through a tie-up with Assam Cricket Association,” MCA secretary and coordinator of BCCI NADP Committee, Naba Bhattacharjee told The Shillong Times on Sunday.
Bhattacharjee said Guwahati was preferred considering different logistics favouring the other seven sister states.
“Implementation of the plan has however been delayed by two years for various unavoidable circumstances in BCCI. But I am hopeful of preliminary work starting this year,” he said. The MCA secretary, who was present at the ACA Stadium in Barsapara here on Saturday, said an NCA academy would give tremendous boost to the development of cricket as a whole in the entire Northeast as the latest technology and infrastructure including world class resource and support staff would be available to our budding talents and senior cricketers alike.
Bhattacharjee further went on to say that if no suitable land was available for setting up the academy in Guwahati for various reasons, “Meghalaya could make land available in the state bordering Guwahati like Khanapara, Pilingkata, etc”.
The BCCI acting secretary had informed on Saturday that Assam chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal was taking keen interest in acquiring around 100 bigha land in Dibrugarh district.
