Kerala   

A welcome change, indeed

Whenever he walked out to bat in an inter-district match in the last seven years, C.M. Thejas knew that he would not get all the time in the world to impress the selectors. In a 40 overs game, you cannot build an innings: you would often be compelled to hit out from the beginning.

At the North Zone (under-22) inter-district cricket championship, which concluded at Thalassery on Wednesday, things were refreshingly different.

Thejas could afford to relax a bit before his turn came to bat; if he wanted, he could bat all day. He scored a hundred against Wayanad in the opening match.

He could plan his innings only because of a significant decision that the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) took in its last annual general body meeting. To make all the inter-district matches - except under-13 - two-day games should do a world of good to Kerala cricket.

In fact, a casual glance at the scores of the inter-district matches this season so far proves that the change of format has already paid rich dividends. In the North Zone tournaments, (under-22 and under-19) alone, there have been a double hundred, three hundreds as well as quite a few impressive bowling figures.

``This is a most welcome change,'' says Thejas, who has represented Kerala in the age-group matches. ``Till this year, it was only one-day games that players like me got at the district-level tournaments. These two-day matches offer a lot of opportunity to all players.''

His team-mate in both Kannur and Kerala teams N.V. Valeed could not have agreed more. ``It was very difficult to bowl in one-day matches, especially for the spinners,'' says the leg-spinner who picked up 20 wickets from three matches in the under-22 tournament.

Kannur District Cricket Association secretary P.V. Sirajuddin says KCA has some doubts initially whether the new format would be successful. ``Now everyone is happy, including the selectors,'' he says.

``You may not get a decisive result from all the games, unlike in one-dayers, but the aim of these tournaments is to select players.''

Actually, five matches from these two tournaments did produce winners.

P.K. Ajith Kumar

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