Shillong, May 20: Chairman of the National Cricket Academy and legendary Indian batsman Dilip Vengsarkar has extended an invitation to the northeastern states to send a cricket team to Mumbai to help them get match exposure, which is critical in developing good cricketers.

Vengsarkar was in the city recently to see how the ongoing New Area Development Programme (NADP) cricket camp for under-19 players was shaping up here. Twenty-five budding under-19 cricketers from Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Sikkim are taking part in the camp.

Earlier this month, fast bowler and Junior Selection Committee chairman Venkatesh Prasad was in Shillong.

"It is important that NADP states play tournaments. For the under-16s, they can play in inter-state competitions, but the under-19s and under-23s have to find other avenues. Mumbai Cricket Association will be happy to host a team from the Northeast," Vengsarkar said at an interaction organised by the Meghalaya Cricket Association (MCA) here.

Like Prasad before him, Vengsarkar said there is great potential among the cricketers he saw in the camp.

"The cricketers played fearless cricket and I've always believed that players should be allowed to develop their natural game," the right-handed batsman said. "World-class players can be produced with good infrastructure and the BCCI is very serious about the NADP states. I'm sure we will get to see top players from here in the future," he added.

He also noted that Shillong has just one cricket ground that sees around 200 matches played on it in a year, which means there is "not a blade of grass on the wicket".

The MCA has received approval for a stadium and indoor practice facility from the BCCI, but the required land is something that the state body has to sort out on its own and it is finding it difficult to do.

BCCI coaches and officials, including former test players Shiv Sundar Das and Ajay Ratra, Assam Ranji Trophy player Javed Zaman, NCA physios and other staff are overseeing the camp. Vengsarkar also informed that he would be back in October for an interstate tournament.

The former Wisden Cricketer of the Year has a legacy of grooming young talent, starting his first cricket academy in Mumbai in 1995 and two more later.