CoA gives Sikkim Cricket Association permission to sign three professionals

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CoA gives Sikkim Cricket Association permission to sign three professionals

The Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) has made a special case for Sikkim, who had chosen not to opt for guest players in the past to avoid preying player-agents who were willing to bribe them.


Bipul Sharma, who played for Himachal Pradesh and Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL, has been signed by Sikkim.

Sikkim Cricket Association has been allowed to hire three professional players for Ranji Trophy even after deadline to register guest players expired on September 1st. The Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) has made a special case for Sikkim, who had chosen not to opt for guest players in the past to avoid preying player-agents who were willing to bribe them.
The bitter experience had kept them away from guest players but poor performance in Vijay Hazare tournament made Sikkim change their minds.


The three players who have been signed are Bipul Sharma, who played for Himachal Pradesh and Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL, Gujarat mediumpacer Ishwar Chaudhary and Delhi batsman Milind Kumar. The SCA chief Lobzang Tenzing had earlier told this newspaper that numerous ‘dalals’ (agents) hang around with various kinds of offers to sign up players.

“Chances of getting corrupt was very high. There are unsavoury groups around; they want to bribe our people. This is happening in junior cricket also. In senior level it’s a different ball game. I’m getting many calls and we have reported matter to ACU and this kind of tsunami we can’t handle. We are virgin land, all exploiters are busy coming here. Let our children get thrashed, they will come up by experience” was what Tenzing had said before.

Now, though, the poor performance in Vijay Hazare Trophy led the association knock on doors of the CoA to make a special exemption for them.



“BCCI has agreed to (hiring of three guest players), this is a special case for Sikkim since we had not opted to take players from outside in the past. Our case was approved by the COA. Our performance was not good. Mr Saba Karim and coaches told us that we will have problems in finding players of calibre. Most of other states are using professional players and they were making the difference in the team. Our coach also was of the view that if we keep losing than our boys will be impacted negatively. Their morale will be down. So that was the reason and BCCI has accepted our request. These players joined the team in Bhubaneshwar,” Tenzing told The Indian Express.

Debutant Sikkim finished last in the Vijay Hazare league games. Sources in the BCCI said that the COA-Indian board will help these new teams as they don’t have same infrastructure like others have. And when the request came from Sikkim, the COA agreed. This will be third time COA has changed their decisions mid-season.

Earlier, they had to change registration rules for new team Puducherry to register players in August 2018 – where the other state associations were made to pick only players who had registered with their association for a duration of a year at least, that requirement was waived off in case of Puducherry.

Then, a week ago, CoA relaxed the domicile rule for government employees’ wards, allowing kids of transferred employees to turn out for new teams easily.

Courtesy : The Indian Express