6 northeast states appeal to COA to play as a combined unit in Ranji Trophy

Six states from north eastern India, who are supposed to become full members of the BCCI as per Lodha Committee recommendation, will be appealing to the Committee of Administrators to allow them to play as a combined unit in Ranji Trophy from this season.

The convenor of the NE state cricket association Naba Bhattacharya informed that their representatives are meeting the COA in the capital on September 8.

The six states that want to field a combined team for the senior national championship are Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim.

The two other North Eastern states — Assam and Tripura — have been long-standing voting members and are a part of the Ranji Trophy for a long time.

“We were really surprised to find that BCCI has chalked up the Ranji schedule and North Eastern states have once again been ignored despite Lodha Committee’s ‘one-state one-vote’ diktat. We are not saying that we want to play as individual states. But there should be a start somewhere,” Bhattacharya told PTI today.

“The NE cricket association representatives will be meeting the COA and we will propose that a combined team be fielded this year. We have good enough players in each state to have a …read more