Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 21
Former India wicket keeper, Kiran More feels that Nagaland has the basic set-up for promotion and nurturing of cricketing talents. More, who donned the gloves for team India for nearly a decade before retiring from international cricket in 1993, is here in Dimapur on a 4-day visit to attend the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) supported coaching camp underway at the Sovima Cricket Stadium (SCS) with faculty from the National Cricket Academy, Bangalore.
The controversy surrounding the Justice Lodha Committee’s report notwithstanding, More is the second international cricketer to visit the ongoing camp after Chetesewar Pujara.
While wishing not to comment on any policy matters of the BCCI, More termed the month long coaching camp as “a fantastic initiative of the BCCI” for promoting the sport.
“It’s a (good) initiative. It’s a start…this start is going to go a long way,” he said while speaking to The Morung Express today at the SCS. More said that he was surprised and “equally impressed to witness the level of cricket infrastructure” when he landed Dimapur on May 20. “You have super facilities here. You have a stadium here, you have a ground, and you have wickets (pitch). This is what you’d want for cricket actually,” he said. Terming SCS as an ideal place for holding coaching camps, he added that it is conducive to even host camps for the entire East Zone. He however stopped short of stating it could house a North East zonal academy for cricket.
A native of Baroda, Gujarat, More claimed SCS fares better in terms of logistics than that in his hometown. Still, More said that Baroda has consistently produced great cricketers, who has gone on to play for India. The SCS with its amenities like a pavilion, floodlights, conference and dining halls can have more pitches, he added. At present, the stadium has eight functional pitches.
Asked to comment on the allegation that there is no presence of cricket in the North East, More maintained he has no idea what it was about or who made the allegation.
Commenting on the players attending the camp, More said it is a great platform for fine tuning raw talent. The camp has 25 players in total with 20 from Arunachal Pradesh, Meghlaya, Manipur, Sikkim and 5 from Nagaland.
Head coach of the camp, Rajib Dutta felt that the visitation by More and Pujara has had a great motivational impact on the young players.
According to him, infrastructure alone will not serve the purpose. “You need to have the attitude, you need to have the will and we need good wickets.” “(As coach) we feel the 22 yards is the most important. We may have ground which is not very good but we need the strips to be good.
