President's Message

President JSCA

It is amazing how time flies. One almost forgot how glorious and gallant the history of Jharkhand State Cricket Association has been. Formed in 1935, by a dedicated band of cricket lovers as Bihar Cricket Association, it soon attained the status of a full member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India which was itself, then, less than years of age. Like the Board this current year, JSCA will soon be in its Platinum Jubilee year.

While traversing this long and momentous journey, the Association has nursed distinguished cricketers, administrators and eminent cricket personalities. The altitude that JSCA has attained obviously could not have been possible had it not been for the sustained and glorious support of the Tatas. While the rest of Bihar was still fumbling with the fundamentals of the game, the Tatas gave us a prominent profile on the Indian cricket map. Thanks to this we even made an early first class debut, as early as 1936-37, and then enabled one of our players to make an appearance for the national side. It is not unreasonable, therefore, that for many years, cricket in undivided Bihar was considered synonymous with TATA STEEL.

We did face a crisis as an association when Jharkhand was carved out of undivided Bihar. Several sustained efforts were made to reach a solution but the one that succeeded was the one made on the fifty-fifth Independence Day. It succeeded because it resolutely recognized the fact that the essence of cricket in undivided Bihar lay where Jharkhand stands today, and asserted itself as the Jharkhand State Cricket Association.

Jharkhand has been and will continue to be an incredible crucible of excellence in cricket. Nothing could illustrate this better than the first year of JSCA not only putting one of its sons into the Indian team but catapulting its Ranji squad into the elite Ranji group. We obviously are on a threshold and we promise not to look back, except at our rich and glorious history.

All the best!

Amitabh Choudhary