The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) management plans to introduce multi-day games in its league to ensure that the players coming out of the structure are ready to play in Ranji Trophy, the premier national domestic competition which is played in the multi-day format.
“Days cricket (multi-day games) was not happening in Delhi for a long time,” said DDCA president Rohan Jaitley to The Patriot on the sidelines of the awards ceremony for the DDCA League 2021-22 that was held at the Capital’s Arun Jaitley Stadium (Ferozeshah Kotla Grounds) on Friday night.
Jaitley had earlier in the evening announced this initiative on stage asking the League Committee to explore ways to bring in a culture of two or three-day games in the DDCA League which currently comprises only one-day cricket.
Former Delhi cricketers, including those who have played for India, have for long lamented on the absence of multi-day games in Delhi’s domestic structure. Other metro cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata have all had multi-day formats — 2-day or 3-day formats, but not Delhi expect for a brief period.
Back in time, till about the 1970s, DDCA had 2-day games but that was a time when only Test cricket was prevalent and the circumstances demanded that format. One-day cricket was still in the nascent stage while T20 cricket wasn’t born yet.
Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) also organised a multi-day format tournament — in the 1980s and early 90s — open to Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and state cricket bodies where a few Delhi league players got chances.
This year, however, DDCA had introduced a two-day 90-over games for selection trials – called Challenger Trophy.
“We saw a sample this year when we did Challenger Trophy with 2-day 90 over games played with red ball for the selections. Ideally, we want to inculcate the format in the league. The idea is to explore a way in how to bring days’ cricket back into Delhi culture. That has been missing for a while. That is where the true potential is [of a cricketer as in it can test the skill],” Jaitley explained after having presided over the function and handed the awards.
The list of DDCA League 2021-22 award winners:
Premier – 1 division:
Top teams: Indian Air Force (cash award: Rs 2 lakh), 2. Sonnet CC (Rs 1.5 lakh), 3. Collage Sports (Rs 1.2 lakh).
Top performers: Akshay Saini of Young Friends (best batsman, Rs 50,000); Piyush Chikara of RPCA (best bowler, Rs 50,000)
Premier – 2 division:
Top teams: 1. Subhania CC (cash award: Rs 2 lakh), 2. NK Khanna CC (Rs 1.5 lakh), 3. Professional Management CC (Rs 1 lakh)
Top performers: Arpit Rana of NK Khanna CC (best batsman, Rs 50,000); Pratyush Raj Pandey of Mohan Meakins (best bowler, Rs 50,000)
Super Elite – 1 division
Top teams: 1. Bright CC (cash award: Rs 1.8 lakh), 2. Rohtak Road Gymkhana (Rs 1.3 lakh), 3. Ravi Brothers (Rs 1 lakh).
Top performers: Tarun Bisht of Times of India (best batsman, Rs 40,000); Ankit Bhadana of Ravi Brothers (best bowler, Rs 40,000).
Super Elite – 2 division
Top teams: 1. Maulana Azad CC (cash award: Rs 1.8 lakh), 2. Delhi Administration (Rs 1.3 lakh), 3. Youngster CC (Rs 1 lakh).
Top performers: Sidharth Sharma of Raghubir Willowers (best batsman, Rs 40,000); Shubham Khurana of Maulana Azad CC (best bowler, Rs 40,000).
Elite 1 division
Top teams: 1. Friends CC (cash award: Rs 1.6 lakh), 2. Delhi Cricket Club (Rs 1.25 lakh), 3. Darling CC (Rs 90,000)
Top performers: Prince Mehra of Friends CC (best batsman, Rs 30,000); Adarsh Jha of Delhi Cricket Club (best bowler, Rs 30,000)
Elite – 2
Top teams: 1. Lala Ram Charan Aggarwal (cash award: Rs 1.6 lakh), 2. Delhi Wanderers (Rs 1.25 lakh), 3. Sonnex CC (Rs 90,000)
Top performers: Kashish Jain of Rajdhani CC (best batsman, Rs 30,000); Prince Chaudhary (best bowler, Rs 30,000)
Super Plate
Top teams: 1. Young Association (cash award: Rs 1.4 lakh), 2. Roop Nagar CC (Rs 1.1 lakh), 3. Golden Eagle (Rs 80,000)
Top performers: Vinayak Gupta of Golden Eagle (best batsman, Rs 20,000); Sahaan John of Young Association (best bowler, Rs 20,000)
DDCA Hot Weather
Top teams: 1. Telefunken CC (cash award: Rs 4 lakh), 2. NK Khanna CC (Rs 3 lakh). Losing semi-finalists: Sonnet CC and Indian Air Force (Rs 2 lakh each).
Man of the Match in final: Deepak Khatri of Telefunken CC (Rs 30,000).
Man of the Tournament: Deepak Khatri of Telefunken CC (Rs 30,000).
Best bowler: Yogesh Sharma of Lala Ram Charan Aggarwal CC (Rs 30,000).
Best batsman: Shivan Sharma of Lala Ram Charan Aggarwal CC (Rs 30,000).
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