Hope for ICL players

Guwahati, June 3: With the BCCI granting general amnesty to players who have applied to return to its fold from the breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL), the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) has prepared the pitch to receive back its five players. But “certain hurdles await for the players ” before they make it to the state team trials. Reacting to the BCCI amnesty, ACA secretary Bikash Baruah, when contacted on his way to Calcutta to select the East Zone under-19 team, said it was a noble gesture by the board and “we will definitely accept the players”. But, at the same time, unlike players from other states, some of our players have offended the ACA and the rules of the association will apply as in the case of any other player. The five players from the state had convened a press conference after joining the ICL in 2007 and a couple of them levelled some baseless allegations against the ACA, which offended the governing body. “The governing body had then placed the matter with the disciplinary committee for necessary action. However, the disciplinary proceedings had to be shelved as they were no more our registered players. Since they are coming back now, the disciplinary committee will decide on their fate and place its recommendation before the next governing body meeting for consideration,” Baruah said, adding that the date for the meeting was yet to be fixed. Sources in the ACA, however, said most of the members have suggested that the apex body show leniency towards the players in view of betterment of cricket in the state. The five players are former Ranji skipper Syed Zakaria Zuffri, Abu Naschim Ahmed, Parvez Aziz, Sujoy Tarafdar and Pritam Das. “After all, they are our own boys who had gone astray and realised it before it was too late. We should forgive them like any parent does an errant child,” observed a key member of the ACA. All the five were part of the state Ranji team in 2006-07, which the ACA rates to be the best ever team the state had ever produced in its 60 years of cricket history. That year, Assam missed an elite group berth by a whisker, going down to Orissa at Barabati following alleged pitch doctoring. On the other hand, senior Ranji player Arlen Konwar has claimed that he was cleared by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) of doubtful bowling action detected in video analysis. He also stated that his teammates, Swarupam Purkayastha and Vikram Chetri, were also cleared. Baruah, however, said he was not in a state to comment on it “because, we are yet to receive any official communication from the NCA”. Baruah and junior national selector Rajesh Borah left for Calcutta today to name the zonal under-19 squad in which some key Assam players are almost certain to be included.