Sanjay Tandon elected chief of UTCA again, to focus on indoor training facilities

“My first term as UTCA (affiliated with BCCI) president saw us first starting things from scratch. After one year, Covid-19 pandemic meant that we were again on the back foot. Last year and a half have seen us reorganising and setting cricketing activities as well as player well-being as our top most priority. We have come again with a young team. Our focus will be on creating the right infrastructure and facilities for men as well as women’s cricket teams,” said Tandon while speaking to The Indian Express.

Yuvraj Mahajan, who was joint secretary in the last executive committee, was elected as UTCA vice-president while Devender Sharma was elected as UTCA general secretary. In the AGM attended by a total of 58 members , Ravinder Singh was elected as joint secretary while Alok Krishna was elected as treasurer. Daniel Banerjee was elected as a member of UTCA apex council.

Tandon expressed hope that new plans for the UTCA office as well as indoor facilities will see the light of day in the coming year. “We are in talks with UT Administration for the new UTCA cricket office at the Sector 16 Stadium and we have also talked with BCCI for allocating funds for this. We have plans to construct indoor training facilities like Dharamshala Stadium here so that players can train throughout the year. We are also looking to have more grounds in the city and we are in talks with various stakeholders,” Tandon said.

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With the city seeing the rise of cricketers like U-19 stars , Tandon also sounded confident that the city will keep churning out more national as well international players. “We are in talks with the BCCI to have sessions by National Cricket Academy experts here in Chandigarh. With the women’s IPL also happening next year, we are hopeful that Chandigarh women cricketers will also get a chance to play in that and our focus is to also develop women’s junior cricket as well as men’s junior cricket team,” Tandon said.