The Berhampur Stadium has been declared unfit to play on. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, May 19: The upcoming Orissa Premier League (OPL) has evoked mixed reactions from cricket lovers in the Silk City. Although their team, Berhampur Bhanja Veers, is one of the 10 participating teams for the T-20 extravaganza, the stadium here will not be used as a venue for any of its matches.

Instead, the Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) has named Bhubaneswar as the host ground for this franchise, leaving cricket fans here deeply disappointed.

Ganjam District Cricket Association (GDCA) president, Ramesh Patra, said: “We were mentally prepared to cooperate with the OCA for organising the OPL tournament at Berhampur. A technical team comprising two field staff — Sarat Chandra Sahu and Situ Das — had visited the stadium here on April 3. Both of them had asked us to prepare a turf pitch which is mandatory for the OPL tournament.”

However, Patra said the two inspecting officials, who were to come back for a second visit, never showed up. “They did not turn up and declared the ground unfit for OPL despite our assurances that we would prepare a favourable pitch in a month’s time,” he added. He alleged the same technical team visited Paradip the very next day for field study. “When preparation of a turf pitch was possible in Paradip within a short period, why was Berhampur not given a chance? As OCA is providing money and technical support for preparing the pitch at all the venues, it has used its own discretion,” he said.

Laxmi Narayan Nayak, revenue divisional commissioner (RDC) of southern division Berhampur, said OCA secretary Ashirbad Behera had spoken to him over phone and explained that the Berhampur stadium did not have a turf wicket, which were a must for OPL matches.

A delegation of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha submitted a memorandum to Nayak demanding that some of the OPL matches be played at Berhampur.

Patra further said the Ganjam team had emerged as group champions in the under-16 and under-19 categories during the inter-district championship held last year. “We have a very good pitch here at Berhampur. Moreover, there are so many budding talents in our district. But the sole motive of the OPL tournament appears to be a profit-making venture instead of a talent hunt,” he said.

GDCA officials rued that the OCA and the franchises had chosen players without consulting them. “Many talented players from Ganjam, including batsmen from Berhampur Sidhhant Gangadev and Pintu Maharana, all-rounders, Susant Panda of Bhanjanagar, and Lulu Muni of Aska and pacer P Santosh Reddy from Dura have been overlooked,” said GDCA secretary Ramani Ranjan Mohanty.

GDCA treasurer Y Rabindranath said they had already spent Rs 40,000 to prepare the ground. .