Team Herald
sports@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: After spate of poor performances last season, the Goa Cricket Association for the first time has taken a bold step of sending its senior teams out of Goa for training ahead of upcoming season.
“The State U-19 as well as the State Ranji team had fared badly in their respective tournaments. This has mainly been attributed to the lack of practice in monsoons when no grounds are available in Goa and lack of indoor facilities”, says GCA secretary Daya Pagui.
Pagui said that while cricket is played round the year in the country, the State players are deprived of practice and play as the grounds are submerged into water till October end.
“For the first time this year we have taken a bold step of sending our Under-19 and Ranji teams to Hyderabad,” he said adding the initiative was suggested by the former president Vinod (Balu) Phadke.
Probables of both U-19 and Ranji have left for Hyderabad.
The Ranji team will be trained by coach Prakash Mayenkar while the U-19 team will be coached by Dhiraj Yadav. The teams will be in Hyderabad upto the Ganesh festival wherein they would get crucial match practice.
The GCA secretary said that the Board of control for Cricket in India will foot the bills for the expenses.
“Even though the GCA coffers are empty the BCCI is supporting us on this. They are directly paying bills of travel, accommodation etc,” he said.
Pagui said while the performance of senior Ranji team is very important, the performance of Under-19 team is equally crucial.
“U-19 team sets a foundation of how good your Ranji team is. We need to invest in these youngsters. We have some good talent but just that they need exposure,” he added.
