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| ACA president Gautam Roy pays tribute to Umananda Borah in a memorial service at RG Baruah sports complex in Guwahati |
Guwahati, Aug. 6: The Assam Cricket Association (ACA) has decided to institute an under-13 state-level cricket tournament in memory of its former joint secretary and state player Umananda Borah, who passed away last year.
A resolution to this effect was adopted at the ACA’s governing body meeting in Golaghat yesterday.
“There cannot be a better tribute to Borah, who dedicated his entire life to the development of cricket. After being a cricketer himself, he served the ACA in different capacities all through,” ACA secretary Bikash Baruah today said.
“We intend to hold the inaugural edition (of the tournament) by the first week of October this year. It will help us spot talent who can be groomed for the under-15 state team, in conformity with the ‘catch them young’ policy,” he said.
However, the format of the tournament would be worked out in due course, he said.
Baruah added that the ACA would organise coaching camps, in select rural pockets, to scout for talent who would be groomed at zonal coaching camps. Players selected from these zonal camps would be trained in specialised central camps here from the current year onwards. “It will be on the lines of the NCA (National Cricket Academy) coaching format, involving experts in the central camps.”
The ACA has also revised the format of various inter-district tournaments from the current edition onwards. In the new format, there will be no limited overs matches. “The matches will go on for a minimum of two days with 90 overs of play everyday,” Baruah said.
“All age group tournaments will be played in preferably four groups and two teams from each group will qualify for the quarterfinals. The group tournaments will be played in league format with the knockout stage beginning from the quarterfinals,” he said, adding that a similar format would be followed in the senior inter-district elite-group tournament too.
He also said the finals would be held in Guwahati if possible and the new stadium at Barsapara ground here would be used for the inter-district tournaments.
Also, the ACA will host Tripura in the Ranji match here in November this year at the Barsapara Stadium, Baruah added.
At the meeting, apart from adopting the statement of accounts for the year 2009-10 and 2010-11, the governing body decided to revise the daily allowance given to its office bearers and members and reduced it from Rs 900 to Rs 700 per day. Also, office-bearers to the newly created posts of vice presidents and joint secretaries were unanimously elected under a constitutional amendment, which increased the number of vice-presidents to seven, joint secretaries to three, assistant secretaries to four and governing body members to 15.
While Ranee Narah and Nilay Dutta were unanimously elected as vice-presidents, Sanatan Das and Ajay Kumar Sarma were elected as joint secretaries. One of the posts for joint secretary was lying vacant since the Umananda Borah demise.
While Babul Hore, who had resigned from a post of vice president, was accommodated as a governing body member replacing Dutta, the governing body empowered a panel comprising president Gautam Roy, vice-president Rakibul Hussain and secretary Baruah to select the assistant secretaries to the newly created posts as well as that which was vacant after Ajay Sarma was elected at joint secretary and the four new governing body members.
The meeting also empowered Roy and Baruah to select the managers of the state teams for the various BCCI tournaments.
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