VCA comes up with T20 meet
   Date :09-May-2022

VCA comes up

 
 
 
 
By Anupam Soni
THOUGH mercury is steadily on the rise, Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) does not want to miss any opportunity in keeping its pool of players fit and match-ready. Abiding by the old adage that ‘match practice is best practice’, VCA has come up with a white-ball Twenty20 tournament for its senior players.
After successfully conducting its maiden Inter-district Twenty20 Championship recently, VCA, going a step further, has announced a five-team competition — ‘Sr Men’s T20 Practice Tournament’ that will begin on Monday.
In the ongoing IPL’s 15th Season, as many as five players from Vidarbha have been picked by various franchisees. After India pacer Umesh Yadav, young wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma, playing for Punjab Kings, has been doing very well.
All-rounder Darshan Nalkande also did reasonably well in limited opportunities he has had for debutants Gujarat Titans. IPL has sort of become gateway for Team India and VCA wants its players to improve in T20 format.
VCA’s young President Adwait Manohar, after being elected to the top post late last year, had clearly mentioned his priorities. And one of those was improvement in the Twenty20 set-up. The two-time Ranji Trophy and Irani Cup champions Vidarbha have had decent success in longest format but did not have much to show in the shortest bang-bang format.
“We need improvement in white-ball cricket. We have been doing well regularly with red ball having won Ranji Trophy and Irani Cup twice each. For last many years, in fact from the time the Twenty20s started, our performance in white-ball cricket, more so in T20s, is not up to the mark. We need to take some major steps to improve in that field,” he had told this scribe in an interview. And he has lived up to his promise. VCA started with the inter-district event and now has come up with this new tourney.
Matches always encourage players to do well as they have chance to impress selectors and become part of the core group of players.
Players who did well in the district event, the Ranji Trophy regulars and Under-25 team players have been divided into five squads to be led by Siddhesh Wath (Team A), Mandar Mahalle (Team B), Aman Mokhade (Team C), Akshay Wadkar (Team D) and Shubham Dubey (Team E).
Matches, that will start at 7.00 am, will be held at VCA Civil Lines ground, VCA Kalamna ground and later at Dr Ambedkar College ground in Laxminagar. There will be two matches played every day.
On the opening day, Team B will take on Team A at VCA Civil Lines while Team D will play Team C at Kalamna.