Tushar Mahakud, a national player in Tennis ball cricket from Odisha team is a dejected lot.
He is unhappy as the game of tennis ball cricket is yet to be recognised by the State Government of Odisha despite the State teams have brought laurels.
Tushar was extremely sorry when he came across news that the Governor of Goa had invited to felicitate the winners of Tennis ball cricket players of Goa who won medals in the national school game federation held in Gorakhpur.
Though Odisha team won similar medals in many categories, yet no one bothered to felicitate these young budding players. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had felicitated last year the team after winning national gold, said Tushar.
Former MLA Priyadarshi Mishra, adviser to the State tennis ball cricket took active role in the felicitation by the CM.
Tushar was born in Karanjia of Mayurbhanj district. Tushar’s parents Manoj Mahakud and Kabita Mahakud were quite apprehensive about son’s future due to stray cases of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in their district which is one of the 15 LWE districts as notified by the Union Ministry of Home. They insisted Tushar to play the game and be an international figure, but the inordinate delay in getting due recognition and support from the State Government has left him in the lurch.
The Orissa Tennis ball Cricket Association (OTBCA) since its establishment in Odisha in 1996 promotes this game with the help of 30 district tennis ball cricket associations in the State. The OTBCA is affiliated to the Asian Tennis Ball Cricket Federation (ATBCA), the Tennis Ball Cricket Federation of India (TBCFI).
It is recognized by the Odisha Olympic Association and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Govt of India and the School Game Federation of India, which is a matter of pride, said Chief Adviser, OTBCA, former Minister and MLAs Badri Narayan Patra.
The tennis ball cricket is being played in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Kenya, Thailand, Hong Kong and Malaysia along with several countries in Asia and the world.
Various State Governments in India have recognized the game. The affiliated States are Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhatisgarh etc, Patra said.
Recently, hundreds of players along with OTBCA officials including Patra, submitted a fresh proposal to recognize the game of tennis ball cricket stating that the Government of India has already recognized the game in serial number 48 out of 63 games recognized so far.
Sports Secretary Vishal Dev however was not aware of Government of India’s recognistion to this most popular game.
The game is played by second highest number in the higher secondary level games in Odisha, said general secretary of Odisha Tennis ball Cricket Association Sithil Kumar Panda.
Last year alone,1,246 college students in 89 colleges participated in the State level team selection in under-20 intercollege tournament category for the School Game Federation of India games held in UP. This game is less expensive and helps all youngsters from various economic strata to play.
In Odisha, young players in 24 districts with a membership of around 30,000 have enrolled as the members of this game.
Looking at the huge popularity of the game in Odisha, former bureaucrat and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi had written a letter to DG CRPF, New Delhi, to sponsor the game to enable mainstreaming of youths in various trouble- torn district.
State joint general secretary, OTBCA, Somanath Parida said with the recognition, weightage and patronisation by the State Government, thousands of young tennis ball cricket players would get the much-needed encouragement and achieve new feats.