For about two years now a group of young players in the age bracket of 14 to 16 years have been practicing their cricketing skills in a private sports club managed by a young cricketer Yawar Khan in Thathri area of landlocked Doda district.
During this period some of these budding cricketing stars shone with their spectacular performances in the local club level cricket and also won laurels for themselves and more importantly for their families who were toiling hard to help them realise their dream of making it big on the 22-yard pitch. Unfortunately, for the past one week none of these players have played a shot or delivered a dream spell of yorkers and bouncers on their favourite practice pitch inside Khan Sports Club, Thathri.
Speaking to The Pioneer over telephone from Thathri, Khan, who is himself a right handed batsman and is currently preparing for his upcoming Ranji trials said, “After several residential structures, constructed on a steep mountain slope, developed cracks in the area, the sports club was also closed down to prevent any mishap”.
“We never wanted to take any chance as children from far off villages are camping here in Thathri for their studies and training purposes”.
On Friday the district administration had relocated 19 families from the Nayi Basti area after several structures were declared unsafe by the team of experts. A team of scientists from the Geological Survey of India visited Thathri to follow up on the issue of land subsidence and took samples.
Referring to the ground situation, Khan told The Pioneer, “I was myself in New Delhi in connection with my practice. I returned home after I came to know about these cracks”. He said on Saturday morning when he visited the club he noticed several cracks had surfaced inside the sports club as well. “Without wasting time I immediately removed the astroturf, bowling machine and speed gun and informed the club members about this development. They were all disturbed and feeling sad as they won’t be able to practice unless some alternate arrangements were made,” he said.
Khan, who is himself playing cricket since 2017 and has played in tournaments organised by Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, had set up the sports club to groom local cricketing talent. To provide a stimulating environment to these young lads Khan had pasted several posters of cricketing heroes inside the hall to motivate them. Khan said, around 15 players are receiving training free of cost as their families could not afford the fee. He said around 50 players are enrolled in the club and practice in the evening.
To provide better training facilities the club was equipped with an indoor and outdoor astroturf, bowling machine, box net and speed gun facilities.
Son of a school principal, Khan was supported by his family and friends to start this training facility. Praying for the well-being of families relocated to safer areas, Khan also made a passionate appeal to the administrators of Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association to support him and help him find a new piece of land where he can raise the training facility and restart his sports club at the earliest.