Kedarnath TNCA letter

In a rather surprising move, former city cricketer S Kedarnath has sent a stinging letter to the TNCA and made several suggestions to improve cricket in TN

Reformat the Buchi Babu Tourney and Get the best out of the 'Failed' TNCA Academy

Former All India State Bank cricketer S Kedarnath (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/06/kedarnath-s-opener-from-1970s.html) has been running a cricket coaching academy in T. Nagar for the last twenty years. Currently there are a whopping 300 students in the academy. He has also been coaching the PSBB School for close to four decades. He has also been a state selector and a coach with the junior state team. During his playing days, he was at the receiving end of selection misgivings and lost out on an opportunity to play for the state. But rarely in the past have cricketers, past or current, taken to writing strongly worded letters to the TNCA. Just over 40years ago, Ranji Cricketer K Balaji (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-blossoming-cricket-career-was-cut.html) raised some important issues relating to TN cricket while still being an integral part of the state team at that time. Another former State Bank staffer R Chandrasekaran (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/09/r-chandrasekaran-sbi-globe-trotter.html) has been one cricketer who from the 1980s has sent a number of letters to the BCCI.

A Strongly Worded Letter

In a rather surprising move and in possibly a first of its kind occurrence in TN cricket in recent decades, 66 year old Kedarnath has sent quite a hard hitting letter to the Secretary of the TNCA this week. He played cricket for State Bank for close to 20years including last five years as what he calls a 'Playing Spectator'. After quitting the bank, he launched his own academy that has consistently seen an overflow of cricketing students, most of them in the 13 to 19 years age group.  Over the last couple of decades, he has not sent any such formal and written communications to the TNCA on improvements in TN cricket. Reasoning out the  letter to the TNCA, he says that he wanted to put together his thoughts as a former cricketer who has also served the association as an U19 selector and an U25 coach and was keen to get the talented cricketers in the state to come to focus. 

In the two decades of him running the coaching academy, this is the first time he has chosen to write a formal letter to the TNCA with his views on cricket in the state.

Reformat the Buchi Babu Tourney

Leading the list of suggestions is the reformatting of the Buchi Babu Tournament. He says that the tourney had served as an ideal platform, during his playing days, to spot players with potential and mould them for the future. In his suggestion to the TNCA, Kedarnath has said that the top two teams in the first division, the U19 state side, the combined districts and the city college team should compete in the tournament along with only two outstation teams. This he says would help spot the unknown potential both from the city as well as the districts.

As seen this year, Buchi Babu tourney has long taken a back seat with TNPL gaining precedence over this and even the Palayampatti shield.

T20 cricket – An early exposure

Kedarnath has asked the TNCA to identify and select the best players from the fourth and fifth divisions of the league and have a separate team in the TNPL for them to get an early exposure into T20cricket. 

Hits out at the TNCA Academy

In a stinging accusation, Kedarnath says that the TNCA Academy for U12, U14 and U16 have been conducted without any result and the regular camps relating to these age segments have been organised only to give assignment to the coaches ‘There is nothing that is coming out from these camps and it has failed.'

Without naming specific cricketers and citing examples, Kedarnath has said that a lot of cricketers with potential had been left out in recent years despite their outstanding performances in all categories. He has also questioned the players selected for the academy and says in the letter that a number of them have been average cricketers. If this be the way of selection, he asks as to how the TNCA would get players to win the Ranji Trophy. He says that these age groups are at the ‘root level’ and the TNCA should give more importance to this instead of ‘filling up’ the candidates for the camp. 

Through the letter, he has also announced his availability to be associated with the TNCA "Cricketers like me are still fit enough to serve the association and those that have not crossed the age of 70 and who are willing to serve should be utilized by the TNCA."

On TNCA League

Kedarnath has made suggestions on the running of the TNCA league. In line with his thoughts on providing early exposure to T20 cricket, he has suggested that the 5th division league be run on T20 format and the 4th divisions as 30overs matches (also if the issue relates to inability to complete the TNCA matches in lower division) while the 3rd and 2nd division matches could continue to be 50overs.

One wonders though on this suggestion that of encouraging T20 at fifth division level which is to lay the foundation for upcoming cricketers.

TNCA to look into his suggestions

When Balaji pointed out some issues all those decades ago, he did not see the desired action from the TNCA that left him frustrated and he quit cricket to move into his family business of running The Hindu. While Kedarnath remained silent for several decades including during the late 1970s when he felt aggrieved at being ignored by the State, he has now chosen to speak out and that has reflected in this rather strongly worded letter. 

In response to Kedarnath's letter, RS Ramaswamy, Secretary of the TNCA has said that he would definitely look into the suggestions made by him and that these would be placed in the appropriate forum. 

This section will track the developments.