Fall season: A look at J&K cricket’s sorry state of affairs

Jonathan Selvaraj tells the sorry tale of fear, confusion, and uncertainty.

Ten days ahead of the start of the domestic first-class season, Jammu and Kashmir pacer Samiullah Beigh is already preparing for the worst. “This is without a doubt the toughest year I have faced as a J&K cricketer,” he says.

Now when you know what Beigh has experienced during his 12-year long senior career, it seems a particularly severe statement. This is a player who trained steadfastly at neighbourhood parks when the Sher-I-Kashmir stadium, like the rest of the city, was out of bounds due to curfew during the 2010 agitation. This is the player who, like his teammates, played while match fees were held back for years on end and facilities remained non-existent even as over a hundred crores were allegedly swindled by officials. Beigh even managed to find a relatively dry field to train in when the rest of his state was flooded last year. This year,however,is different.

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“No matter what trouble we had in the past, we always had cricket to look forward to. We did what we had to do for the rest of the year because we had our eyes set for the two months of first-class cricket at the end of the year. This time around we aren’t so sure that will happen,” Beigh says.

Beigh’s uncertainity, this time around, has to do with a problem that is once again out of his control. In July this year the elections for the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) were won by Imran Reza Ansari, the sports minister in the PDP-BJP government. Ansari replaced former chief minister Farooq Abdullah who had been president of the state association since 1980. Abdullah, who was re-elected as JKCA president for a three-year term in May 2014, dubbed Ansari’s election as “illegal and unconstitutional”, saying he still had nearly two years left in his tenure. The Farooq Abdullah group obtained a stay order on the election results.

With both factions claiming legitimacy to run the JKCA, the players have been pulled in separate directions, with the two parties conducting selection trials and preparatory camps simultaneously over the past month. While the newly elected body headed by Ansari has been holding a camp for players from Kashmir at the Sher-I-Kashmir stadium, the other faction has been conducting trials at the Kashmir University.

While players have been forced to chose where to train, they have simultaneously been keeping a wary eye on the courts. In the conflict between the two factions, it’s the players who are paying the price. While many players from Jammu had cast their lot with the Abdullah group, the majority of players from Kashmir — 10 of the 14 from the region who had represented the state in last year’s domestic season – had been practising at the Sher-I-Kashmir stadium. After a recent court hearing appeared to be in favour of the Farooq Abdullah faction, ML Nehru who was the general secretary of the body before the July election took the hard line and said that only players who had appeared for his faction’s trials—at Kashmir University—would be considered for selection. “There are some players who are needlessly causing confusion. Some of them will face action,” Nehru said.

The threat has understandably caused consternation among the players. “The attitude that players will suffer because of the fight between the two factions was very troubling. None of the players want to be in a position where they have to make a choice in choosing one faction or the other. In as many years as I have been playing cricket, the standard practice has been to come to the Sher-I-Kashmir stadium for the trials. ” says Beigh.

At one point when he read that the Farooq Abdullah faction was about to get a favourable verdict, Beigh skipped attending the camp at the Sher-I-Kashmir stadium for a few days. “Frankly we are all very confused. As an engineer I’m one of the most educated guys in the team. And even I am not sure of the legal background to the case. I didn’t think that I would have to be a lawyer when I started playing cricket. When the U-19 boys come and ask me for advice, I don’t know what to say because any option I tell them could end up hurting their careers,’ says Beigh.

Abdul Qayoom Bagaw too has few suggestions to offer. Having represented the state for 16 years between 1986 and 2002, and later coached the side to a quarterfinal position in 2013, Bagaw says factionalism has existed as long as he can recall and that the players have routinely paid the price for the fighting of the officials

“In the past, the division would mostly be between the two regions — Jammu and Kashmir. There have been times when the team had been selected and about to play matches when the Kashmir lobby would have a fight with the Jammu faction and then decide that no one from Kashmir would play. I probably missed out about 30 to 40 domestic games during my time with the team because of that,” he says.

Alongside lobbies based on region, there were also factions based on clubs says Bagaw. Of the 64 votes cast in the JKCA elections, 50 are cast by 25 clubs which are affiliated to the JKCA. There are another 14 voting members from government institutions. The latter votes are invariably transferred according to the wishes of the party in power in the state. Because the affiliated club has a vote in the JKCA elections, the winning party is keenly invested in picking players from loyalist clubs. “In 2013, the year we qualified for the knockouts, we played perhaps 14 players over the tournament. Last year when we were demoted to group C of the Ranji Trophy, 35 players got a game. Officials had to keep their supporters happy,’ shrugs Bagaw.

In order to keep the number of supplicants manageable, no new club has received affiliation in the last half a century despite there being hundreds in the state. As such its enormously difficult for players who aren’t from an affiliated club to get picked in the state side. And even if picked by an affiliated club, getting selected for the state team often depended on whether your club had backed the winning party in the JKCA elections. “In 2002 I was told by the selectors that I would not be considered for the next season. I was told very clearly that it was because I was a member of a club which had been backing a faction which had lost the elections,” says Bagaw.

Indeed even in the current faceoff in the JKCA, the players are being used as pawns. Wicketkeeper Obaid Haroon and pacer Umar Nazir, who played in the Ranji Trophy last season, are attending the camp organised by the Abdullah faction. The reason being that the two play for an affiliated club run by Ehsan Mirza, an Abdullah loyalist.

Bagaw adds that things have changed in one aspect since he retired in 2003. “Back then they would mess up your careers but recently they have been looting a lot of money as well. You have to understand that in the 1990s, we got perhaps 75 rupees a day as our daily allowance. There just wasn’t any money in the game,” he says.

Timber sold

Money started flowing into the state in 2003 when Jagmohan Dalmiya started the policy of the BCCI disbursing 70 percent of the Board’s revenue to 27 state associations under it. Between 2002 to 2012 the JKCA received 22 crore a year as subvention and an infrastructure subsidy of 50 crores a year from the BCCI. The players have seldom seen much of that money. “I can’t recall the last time players got their match fee on time. Usually it takes a couple of years for the dues to be cleared,” recalls ex-cricketer Majid Dar.

There has been a constant whiff of financial wrongdoing by the JKCA. Dar recalls how a couple of years back, there were allegations of corruption in the sale of the benches from the stands of the Sher-I-Kashmir stadium. “The planks of solid deodhar wood were worth several thousand per square foot but the officials sold it away for a few hundred rupees to their relatives,” says Dar.

The few lakhs misappropriated through underpriced wood were pocket change compared to the massive `116 crore the former treasurer of the JKCA Ehsan Mirza and the ex general secretary Salim Khan were accused in 2012 of siphoning off. While the police filed an FIR, Dar later jointly filed a PIL in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court seeking a proper probe into the scandal. The PIL named Farooq Abdullah among nine other as respondents and the court has passed an order calling for a CBI enquiry into the same. The CBI on Monday registered an FIR into the alleged misappropriation of funds but did not name Farooq Abdullah as a suspect in the same.

With the BCCI withholding funds to the JKCA since the scandal first broke out, the players are once again the first to suffer. “We are always told that there is a shortage of funds. Last year before the T20 matches, we were told that there wasn’t any money to get the coloured kit. We were told to use their kit from the one day matches or borrow from some of the players who had been dropped. In the end, our manager arranged the playing kit for us a few hours before the match started,” recalls Hardeep Singh , who has represented the side for the last 11 years.

No money

Indeed the same reason has been given to the players this year as well. “Normally, about a month before the tournament starts we travel to Srinagar in order to practice alongside the players who have been selected from the Kashmir region. This time we have been told that the federation can’t afford it. So the Jammu players have been told that they will be practising in Jammu and will join the Kashmir players in the week before the Ranji Trophy,” says Singh.

Considering the way things were for the last few decades, it seems that the July coup in the JKCA may have been a force for good. The new president Imran Ansari says all the right things. Among other stuff, he has talked about opening up the JKCA to more clubs to break the old monopolies. For all his intentions, though, not all players have high expectations.

“I have stopped hoping for things from the federation. In J&K cricket, the only person you can count on is yourself. I don’t have any expectations from any faction. At least in my case I’d rather just concentrate on my individual performance and focus on what I can do.” says Ian Dev Singh, one of the side’s most consistent batsmen. For Singh who plays for most of the year in Mumbai, the stark difference between the facilities available at the club level in Mumbai and the state level in Jammu clearly rankles. “In Mumbai before a club level tournament, you play at least a couple of practice matches. Here we haven’t had a single tournament organised by the association this year.”

Singh’s observation makes sense when you consider that of another Jammu player. “The Ansari group held a short five-day camp a couple of weeks back. We were supposed to play a couple of practice matches at the end but after the court cases between the two factions, no official or selector came to watch. It was an entirely pointless situation,” the player says.

There are other signs that cause some uneasiness as well. The JKCA under Ansari appointed as coach and captain former Delhi skipper Mithun Manhas. At first glance, picking Manhas as a professional seems an entirely reasonable call considering he played much of his age group cricket in Jammu and is indeed one of the heaviest scorers in domestic cricket in India. However,Manhas is also the president of Jammu Cricket Club, one of the 25 affiliated to the JKCA. Ansari also admits that Manhas had voted for him in the July elections. He denies any impropriety. “I only met Mithun Manhas after the election,” he says.

As it stands, it’s not completely certain whether Manhas, or indeed any of the players who have appeared for the selection trials under either faction will feature in the Ranji Trophy at all. As both sides look to interpret the court orders in a way favourable to them, they are also keeping watch on what the BCCI has to say. The Board for its part has stayed silent.

Perhaps the clearest answer will come on the 22nd when Jammu and Kashmir play their first match in the domestic women’s U-19 competition. Originally supposed to be held in Jammu, the venue for the match has been shifted to Una in Himachal Pradesh. Both factions have sent a squad and the side that gets to play will indicate who’s team will feature for the remainder of the season.

On Monday, the Ansari group claimed victory. A court in Baramulla in North Kashmir issued a ruling restraining the Abdullah-led faction from interfering in the affairs of the state association. Imran Ansari also said that they had been recognised by the BCCI. “The court gave a restraint order against the other faction and, based on that, the BCCI recognized our faction and asked us to conduct trials,” Ansari claimed. He said the directions from the BCCI were issued by its secretary Anurag Thakur.

Howeve, ML Nehru of the opposing faction denied any direction from the BCCI. He insisted that the matter would only be decided on the day of the women’s U-19 game.

And so the uncertainty will go on for a bit more. One of the only things that’s obvious in this sorry affair is the sarcasm in Hardeep Singh’s words. “Oh it’s not too bad being a Jammu and Kashmir cricketer. We are ignored for a year, We don’t play any tournaments. We aren’t certain when we join a camp, it could mean the end of our career. When we do take part in a camp,we perhaps get a week of practice. After that we will train as a team with the Kashmir players for a couple of days. Then we will go and win the Ranji Trophy.”