Two years ago, the BCCI unveiled its plan to spread the game to remote areas of the country. That project, known as the New Areas Development Programmes (NADP), is finally due to begin next month — and will hopefully end the sad story of unspent funds, slashed budgets and high public interest that was not fully satisfied.The NADP was run by a committee — which met just after its inception — comprising the top men of Indian cricket: BCCI joint secretary Gautam Dasgupta was the convenor, the others included NCA chief Brijesh Patel, Jagmohan Dalmiya and former selector Sanjay Jagdale.Dasgupta explains the rationale: ‘‘The idea is to promote cricket in the new areas we have identified: the seven states from the North-East, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Pondicherry, Daman and Diu and Chandigarh. The aim is to get things to a point where we can stage a under-17 and under-19 tournaments among these new areas by February-March next year.’’So far, the committee has made no headway.Consider this from the BCCI’s annual report: Last year the BCCI allocated Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 lakhs for each of the 10 centres) for the NADP but spent just 23 per cent of it. The reason: The complete program could only be run in three centres, Pondicherry, Chandigarh and Daman. It ran for two months in Sikkim, and a month each in Andaman and Nicobar and Meghalaya. That is a total of six centres in a year, which should have amounted to at least Rs 40 lakhs.The following year the budget was slashed by half, without explanations.‘‘Blame the litigations’’, says Prof Ratnakar Shetty, who was the convener of the NAPD committee last year. ‘‘Most of the committees were non-functional due to the various court cases (against the BCCI) and so it was the old body which was functioning.’’Shetty — who stresses it is not aimed at creating vote banks, these areas don’t even have a vote in the BCCI — says the programme should have held its first tournament by now; instead, it’s still working on the format.The apathy flies in the face of the interest shown by prospective participants. Former Test spinner Rakesh Shukla who was on a coaching assignment in Pondicherry, speaks of what he saw first-hand. ‘‘Ninety boys travelled 40-50 kms daily for the camp while the sports college encouraged woman also to play’’, he says, adding that the mismanagement by the association affected the program. ‘‘There was chaos until the Sports Council took over.’’As a corrective measure, the BCCI has suggested that the NADP be supervised by the nearest affiliated unit.Now, it seems, the BCCI wants to make amends. ‘‘This won’t be a one-time effort’’, promises Brijesh Patel. ‘‘From July the BCCI, with support from the NCA, will launch a series of training programmes at these areas that will go on till early next year when we organise the tournaments. At the same time, emphasis will be put on matters related to infrastructure development, since the Board will provide all the facilities.’’(With S. Santhanam/New Delhi and Nadim Siraj/Kolkata)
