Bishan Singh Bedi requests BCCI to help Jammu and Kashmir cricket

Two rival factions of the state's cricket board have recommended two different sets of squads and coaches for the upcoming Ranji season.

Mumbai: Bishan Singh Bedi, the former Indian left-arm spinner and an active participant in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) cricket, has appealed to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to help the beleaguered state after another round of turmoil has threatened to derail their upcoming Ranji Trophy campaign. J&K cricket has two factions pitching for different squads and coaches to be selected to lead them in the season beginning next month. “Like the ICC must pitch in to revive West Indian cricket, the BCCI must intervene to help J&K cricket. Please don’t treat it as just a unit which will ensure a vote. The players there have so much talent and hunger for the game. They need proper direction, but the administration has strangled them for its petty vote politics. How can you perform under so much fear,” said Bedi. READ: Parvez Rasool: Lack of infrastructure and intent by administrators destroying J&K cricket

The factions have organised separate trials and training camps in Srinagar. Sunil Joshi, the former India left-arm spinner, is recommended as coach by the rival group, led by the state’s sports minister Iqbal Raza and chief minister Farooq Abdullah, and Mithun Manhas is backed as coach-cum-player for them by the incumbent faction.

According to Times of India, Bedi further added,“They (administrators) are just not bothered about the game. I’ve seen how the BCCI and the DDCA (the Delhi board) functions, but JKCA (the J&K board) takes the cake. It’s very poor. I left (J&K cricket) because I was fed up of the administration.”Bedi had quit as the coach of the J&K team in November last year. The rise of Parvez Rasool as a promising and successful spinner is credited to him. READ: Bishan Singh Bedi meets Arvind Kejriwal to discuss irregularities in DDCA

BCCI, however, maintained that the board “does not interfere in the internal issues of an association”.