High on Cup win, hills hope for revival

Children play cricket on the banks of the Teesta river in Kalimpong. File picture

Kalimpong, April 4: Will cricket see a revival in the hills in the wake of the exploits of the Indian team in the World Cup?

Die-hard cricket lovers in Kalimpong are hoping the answer would be affirmative.

Unlike most parts of the country, football, and not cricket, is the most popular game in the hills. Cricket, in fact, started acquiring mass appeal only since the mid-eighties when Doordarshan started beaming international cricket matches in the region.

Earlier, it used to be a sport played mostly by the “babalogs” in the handful of Anglo-Indian schools here. However, thanks to television, local people started taking to the game in a big way by the start of the nineties.

In 1992, the Piranhas Club based here started the annual Piranhas Cup cricket tournament, which arguably was the biggest in the hills and neighbouring Sikkim.

“Participating teams from different parts of north Bengal and Sikkim used to hire Ranji Trophy players for the tournament. The Bengal Ranji captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla also played for one of the teams in the nineties,” said Shamsher Ali, the chief co-ordinator of the club.

A cricketer practises in Kalimpong. File picture

After 2009, the tournament has not been held, reflecting perhaps the lack of interest among the present generation in the sport.

Ali, however, said the club had not been able to host the event last year because of financial crunch. “It costs Rs 2 lakh to host the tournament. Sadly, the DGHC, which used to fund the tournament, stopped doing so because of political turmoil in the hills. We are, however, hopeful of hosting the tournament sooner than later with financial support from various quarters,” said Ali.

And Ali, like many other die hard cricket fans, is hoping India’s triumph in the World Cup could act as the catalyst for the revival of the sport. “I am sure the World Cup victory would make cricket more popular not just in Kalimpong but in the entire hills. Television reaches every corner and youngsters might have seen the fame and money that comes with the game,” said Sona Fonning, a former cricketer.

Sandip Jain, who used to play for the Cricket Club of Kalimpong (now disbanded), too, said he was hoping more and more kids would take to the sport. “Actually, my own reading is that there are more kids playing cricket, but for some reason the quality of the game they play is not the same as it used to be during our time,” he said.