Jammu, Feb 14: In a goodwill gesture and as a token of love and gratitude, the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) honoured the members of ‘History Creator’ Ranji Trophy Team with ap-preciation certificates and silver coins in an impressive, colourful and well-attended function at JKCA Headquarters Jammu Friday.
For making the 2024-25 season memorable, the Sub-Committee Members (Administrators) of JKCA including Brig Anil Gupta, Member Administration; Mr Mithun Manhas, Member Cricket Operations and Development and Adv. Sunil Sethi, Member Legal Affairs.
While addressing the media fraternity, the JKCA Administrators (Sub Committee Members) said that superb performance during the season was the outcome of going through a process, providing qual-ity facilities to the players and making them hone their skills during the exposure tours prior to the national tournaments.
“The Association made the team to go through a process and experience a series of steps or actions with a specific goal in mind since we took over the affairs of JKCA in 2021. The process took time to overcome challenges and reach a desired outcome and the result is evident now. Essentially, going through a process signifies being actively engaged in a progression with multiple stages in-volved. Moreover, JKCA provided SG Kookaburra balls and standard cricketing gear to the teams even for practice purposes,” said Mithun Manhas, Member Cricket Operations and Development.
“The team emerged table topper in the Group A thus qualifying for the knockout stage. The feather in the cap of the team is that they remained undefeated throughout the tournament and the feats of this team will remain embedded in the memory of cricket lovers across the country for times to come. Be it the first innings lead against Maharashtra in the opening match at Srinagar or an innings defeat over services or conceding the first inning lead to Odisha, the white wash of minos Meghalaya or the thrashing given to Mumbai, victory against Baroda or an unfortunate miss in the Quarter final by 01 run will remain in the memories of the cricket fraternity for some time at least,” maintained Brig Anil Gupta.
“This team has done what many teams couldn’t do. There were certain moments of joy and certain unpleasant moments like 01 run first inning lead to Kerala in the Quarter-Finals. But this is part of the game. What matters is cohesiveness and fighting spirit displayed by the team. Season 2024-25 has announced the arrival of J&K on the big platform,” said Adv Sunil Sethi.
Brig Gupta further said that the achievement could not have been possible without the hard work and efforts put in by the players, who have performed under the watchful eyes of Coaching Staff and the Support Staff, adding though the team could not make it to semifinals yet it can be claimed with pride that it humbled Mumbai and Baroda in their backyards when many expected this to be one-sided affairs.
The Sub Committee Members presented the members of team the certificates of appreciation. Each member was presented with certificates and silver coin given by the Rakesh Jewellers. Paras Dogra, Captain of the team was honoured for leading from the front and taking a fantastic catch to dismiss rival captain Ajinkya Rahane; Shubham Khajuria was honoured for emerging top scorer for J&K and 7th highest scorer in the country; Explosive Abdul Samad for making a record of scoring 2 centuries in each innings of a match; Kanhaiya Wadhawan for making an impactful return to Ranji Trophy; Yawer Hassan for emerging as a dependable opener; Lone Nasir Muzzaffar for his impressive all-round skills; Vivrant Sharma for being a utility player; Sahil Lotra for fast emerging as a good all-rounder; Abid Mushtaq for being a dependable all-rounder; Umar Nazir for being a pace sensation and a perfect team man; Vanshaj Sharma for being the emerging spinner of the team; Aquib Naabi for being the highest wicket taker among the pace bowlers in the country with six 5-wicket hauls; Yudhvir Singh for his extraordinary fast bowling skills; Sunil Kumar for leaving an indelible remark and Waseem Bashir for being the future of the pace bowling department.
On the occasion, special performances of a few players were also highlighted and were honoured for their achievements. Auqib Nabi for emerging as the highest wicket taker among the fast bowlers and took six five wicket-hauls; Yudhvir Singh for taking 7 wickets in the match against Mumbai; Sahil Lotra for taking 11 wickets in the match against Baroda; Kanhaiya Wadhawan for scoring 71 runs in the 1st Innings and 84 runs in 2nd Innings against Baroda; Paras Dogra for scoring a crucial century (132) in the match against Kerala.
The members of Coaching and Support Staff who were felicitated for brilliant work included Ajay Sharma, Head Coach; P Krishna Kumar, Bowling Coach; Dishant Yagnik, Fielding Coach; Hilal Ahmad, Manager; Sunny Kumar, Trainer; Chirag Pandya, Physiotherapist; Sahil Magotra, Video Analyst and Naresh Kumar, Masseur. The proceedings of the programme were beautifully conducted by JKCA Office Assistant Manisha Gupta.
