Ranchi, Feb. 22: Gone are the days of travelling second-class or putting up in cheap hotels.

Women cricketers in the state team are now enjoying a better diet, uniforms and infrastructure after the game came under BCCI’s purview.

And hopes are high that performances would also improve due to the special treatment.

The captain of Jharkhand cricket team, Seema Desai, admitted that previously things were worse. The team members would travel in sleeper-classes and players were accommodated in low-quality places.

However, after the BCCI took over, the situation has improved for the better.

“We are getting all the basic facilities, like better balls, uniforms, bats and ground for practice. We are also given better food and are lodged in better places. Recently, we were even flown back from Guwahati. All these were possible due to the BCCI,” she said.

The national cricket body took the state women’s cricket under its wings in March 2006.

Apart from improving the diet and infrastructure, BCCI also organised an essential training session for the players.

“A 15-day camp was organised in Jamshedpur for the junior and senior players, so that we could get some practice before the nationals,” said Desai.

If one asks around, players have harrowing tales of travel where some were forced to sit near toilets or near the train’s doors, because no reserved seats were made available.

Apart from poor lodging and food , they were oftenforced to pay from their pockets. But post-BCCI intervention, not only the logistics, but performances seem to have improved, too.

Recently the Jharkhand women’s cricket team participated in an inter-state meet and emerged as winners.

They had also participated in a zonal-meet and in the nationals, where the team lost in the quarter-final.

There are around 40 junior and senior players in the Jharkhand Women’s Cricket Association and coaching institutes have been started in Bokaro, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, East and West Singbhum, Garwah and Latehar.

Besides, a proposal is on the anvil to form cricket teams in Daltonganj and Godda.

Jai Kumar Sinha, a senior player who has been associated with Jharkhand Women’s Cricket Association for long seemed optimistic.

“There should be 100 per cent improvement in the situation now,” he added.