Shot in the arm for Puducherry cricket

Strangely, Puducherry was considered a district unit of Tamil Nadu in cricket while in all other sports events, it was accorded the status of state (Union Territory). While Goa and Delhi enjoyed the privilege of playing in all the BCCI events, Puducherry was a non-entity and its players hardly got any chance to play in Ranji Trophy or other big events. 

Not that it had big players to compete with the talent of Chennai or some strong districts in Tamil Nadu, but it had good facilities and infrastructure to hold top cricket events. Though the decision to make Puducherry an associate member came last month, there was still a court case regarding the eligibility of the three factions fighting for control, two under the Pondicherry Cricket Association and a third, the Cricket Association of Pondicherry (CAP), with P. 

Damodaran as its secretary, which was finally chosen as the official body. The CAP was fighting a 15year battle for BCCI membership citing the cases of other disciplines in which Puducherry was a state but it never got its right. “You see, Pondicherry was always a quiet land under the French and it got its freedom sans an independence struggle, unlike other parts of India which fought the British. 

This is the first fight for Pondicherry in its history,” stated Damodaran, who was instrumental in forming the CAP 15 years ago. With the indirect blessing of former ICC and BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya and the direct supervision of former Indian player and the then secretary of Karnataka State Cricket Association Brijesh Patel, Damodaran conducted an all-India cricket tournament there in 2005. Now, Puducherry has two turf wickets. 

In six months, it plans to add six more. In fact, Damodaran has a few ambitious plans, which should come through, going by the support the association enjoys from the Government of Puducherry. The notable one is the construction of an international stadium with a capacity of 45000. 

“It will be based on the French architecture and it will have parking facilities for 7000 cars. More importantly, the stadium will be owned by CAP unlike big states where the Sports Councils or Sports Development authorities control the stadium,” said Damodaran. The Ranji season has already started but CAP hopes it will get representation in the limited over and T20 competitions of the BCCI. All said and done, it is one more state to BCCI and the more the merrier.