Assam Cricket Association (ACA) hands over cash awards to Vijay Hazare team

SPORTS REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Assam Cricket Association (ACA) today handed over the cash award to cricketers (Rs 25 lakh) and support staff (Rs 10 lakh) to the State cricket team which displayed a brilliant show in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Cricket. In the same function, Jintimoni Kalita, who represented India's 'B' team during the quadrangular series held recently, was also felicitated.

The felicitation function was held at the newly built Club House of the ACA where President Taranga Gogoi, joint secretary of BCCI Devajit Saikia and several current and former members of the apex council of ACA were present.

Congratulating the team members, president Gogoi said, "It's nice to see that our cricketers made a fascinating performance in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Cricket. The new apex council, after taking charge recently, decided to felicitate the team members with a cash award because whenever our players perform well we need to motivate them."

At the same time, he added. "We are also happy to see that Jintimoni was in the Indian B team in the recently concluded quadrangular series. She will also receive a cash award of Rs 1 lakh from the Assam Cricket Association."

It may be mentioned here that Assam finished among the top four teams in the Vijay Hazare Cricket Championship after losing the semi-final tie to Maharashtra recently. The performance of the batters were magnificent and they played crucial roles in the team's after-victories. Assam altogether scored 2463 runs in their nine games and the batters also scored five centuries in the meet. Among the five centuries, three came from the bat of Riyan Parag, while Swarupam Purkayastha and Rishav Das scored one each.

Sharing his views on the team's performance, coach Subhrajit Saikia said, "Although we reached the semi-final, honestly speaking, I am not happy with the way we have finished the competition. This team were capable of winning the cup and, unfortunately, we had to end the campaign in the semi-final."

In his speech, Subhrajit admitted that he was happy with the performance of the batters. "Riyan showed a wonderful class of batting. The knock, 174, he played against Jammu and Kashmir was amazing. We witnessed a match-winning knock from Swarupam and an equally important knock from Rishav. I have to take the name of Sibsankar, who was the most consistent batter in our team. Kunal also led the team from the front. During the tournament, we had some problems with the opening spot. During team meeting Kunal came forward and offered himself to open the innings."

Saikia, the joint secretary of BCCI, also spoke a few words at the function. It was during his tenure that the Assam Cricket Association first started to find out the reason for the poor performance of Assam batters in domestic cricket. Highlighting that point in his speech, Saikia said, "I can still remember the moment when we talked with cricketers on that issue and Swarupam Purkayastha informed us that our cricketers didn't get the opportunity to play on good wickets. We immediately decided to prepare good wickets on various grounds and even brought special soil from Odisha. In the last few years, our batters have been playing on those wickets, and it seems our plan worked." In his speech, Saikia also cautioned the cricketers to handle their success carefully and focus on the game."

The other members present on this occasion were Rajendra Singh (joint secretary), Rajdeep Oja (Vice president), Chiranjit Langthasa (Treasurer), Roman Dutta (former president) and Parikshit Dutta (former vice president).

Also Read: Assam Cricket Association forms committee to coordinate districts

Also Watch: