Kanga League returns to old format

The city's favourite monsoon cricket event, Kanga League, will now be played in its old tournament format, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) decided on Wednesday.

Two years back, the format of Kanga League was changed to Elite Division and Plate Division that was being played at the end of monsoon. Reverting to the traditional format means it will be played during the rains.

MCA says, the idea behind the move is to restore the reason for which the league was played — that is to test the character of a cricketer in wet conditions and on uncovered wickets.

The format was changed two seasons ago as bulk of the season was getting washed out because of rains. So the tournament was moved to end of the monsoon. The new regime believes that there is no point in playing the league after the rains as it defeats the whole purpose.

A source from the managing committee said, "We are going back to the old format of Kanga League. We will start the league from August as clubs complained that new format did not provide enough opportunities as many A and B division tournaments such as Police Shield and Purushottam etc were merged."

The decision was taken on Wednesday here at the first meeting of the new managing committee that was elected recently after the biennial MCA polls.

Association's former vice president Ravi Sawant, who had brought in the change in Kanga League two seasons back, termed Wednesday's decision as regressive.

"I am laughing to myself that the committee members, who have been around for last two years, have changed the Kanga format in the first meeting itself. Reverting to the old format is a backward step," said Sawant, who lost his position in the recent polls.

"Kanga League was introduced so that the players would get used to playing on wet wickets as all over the world, the matches were played on uncovered wickets. That was the significance. Tell me where do you see matches played on uncovered wickets?" he said.

"Back then we used to get to see or play alongside India and first class players, but today you don't get to see that. Now players go to England and play County cricket.

"Today the captains and umpires don't even start the game if the wicket is even slightly wet unlike earlier where umpires would start the game even if there was enough foothold. Captains are just not interested. Even the grounds are not prepared because they are not maintained properly. Go and ask any present cricketer if he is ready to go back to the older format," Sawant added.

In another move, MCA appointed vice president Dilip Vengsarkar as the chief of Cricket Improvement Committee. Rest of the CIC members and other sub-committees will be decided on Thursday by the managing committee.