Nagpur, April 18
If the Mizoram women cricket team is doing well in the ongoing Senior Women Cricket Trophy, then its credit goes to none other than current Vidarbha Cricket Association senior coach and former junior National selector Pritam Gandhe.
So far in the plate group, Mizoram have won four out of four matches and become strong contenders to book the berth in the knockout stage. This success has not been achieved by the North East team in one day but it took a lot of effort to build the team from almost trash.
When the North East teams were introduced in the Indian domestic circuit in 2017- 18, Gandhe was appointed Mizoram women's coach by BCCI. He was in-charge of the team for the last two years. Talking about his journey, Gandhe who has played 100 first class matches for Vidarbha said, " It was not easy since the girls were not aware about the basics of cricket. They had no knowledge of cricketing terms. Secondly there is still no basic infrastructure for cricket. Still I took the challenge and started to coach the team and today I am happy that the team is consistently performing well", said Gandhe.
The former Vidarbha captain said in the first season the Mizoram women team managed to win just one match. Then gradually the team members continued to learn the basics of cricket and three professional players in the form of former Madhya Pradesh captain Ruchita Bhuley Mumbai's Prajakta Shirwadkar and Uttar Pradesh's Apoora Bharadwaj were inducted into the team. " Naturally professional players helped the team to win the matches but at the same time we can't forget the contribution of local players.", said Gandhe.
In the second season the Mizoram team took a giant step and managed to win four matches and lost one match by a whisker. “ It has not happened in one day. The girls really worked hard. High fitness level is the main advantage for these girls. They are physically very strong. Some of the girls are athletes, hockey, badminton, handball and karate players. Now in the third season they have learn the basics of cricket and are also winning the matches.
Gandhe said infrastructure for cricket is the main issue in North East states. “ Since there are no facilities, their training camp is being conducted at places like Bhubneswar and Vishakhapattanam. This year due to the Corona pandemic there was no camp and the girls hardly got two days for practice before the tournament started. I am happy that even in adverse circumstances they are delivering their best”, Gandhe signed off.