Shillong, Jun 28: The Meghalaya Cricket Association is ready with coaches and training plans for the senior and age-group teams that will represent the state in the BCCI’s domestic season, which is expected to begin in October, Apex Council Member Mark Ingty said yesterday.
The MCA has been going through a very public bad spell, with damaging accusations of sexual harassment and a funding freeze caused by a dispute between the President, James PK Sangma, and the Honorary Secretary Rayonald Kharkamni.
The other elected members of the Apex Council also seem to be on Kharkamni’s side and, collectively, they wrote to the BCCI earlier this month to bring the governing body’s attention to the state of affairs in the MCA, including how the impasse has affected preparations for the domestic season as well as local inter-district tournaments. This was also told to the BCCI in a separate letter signed by nine of the 12 district associations.
Yesterday, at a press conference with Sangma regarding the sexual harassment issue, Ingty assured that, in fact, the MCA is as ready today as it has been in past years at this point in the calendar.
“In the past they have started preparing teams even later and we will be starting preparations earlier this season,” he said, adding that the association is ready with its list of coaches and training plans.
Ingty is the most senior player in the state to have played for Meghalaya in BCCI competitions and he has been co-opted onto the Apex Council. The Shillong Cricket Association, in yet another letter to the BCCI, questioned whether he is eligible as he is also the Joint Secretary of the Cricket Association of West Khari Anglong and a member of the selection committee of the Assam senior cricket team. Ingty had played for Assam in the years before Meghalaya was given full BCCI affiliation.
Unlike the office bearers on the Apex Council, Ingty is obviously in Sangma’s camp. The President also has the support of the cricket advisory committee, which features the next three senior-most ex-Meghalaya players – Jason J Lamare, Wanlambok Nongkhlaw and Aditya Singhania.
Sangma said that these four will be key to improve Meghalaya’s standing in the domestic cricket scene. He said that Meghalaya has been in tremendous decline over the last few years – from defeating Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy (which is misleading) to being relegated back to the plate group. In actual fact, Meghalaya has never defeated Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy but did do so once in the T20 tournament called the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, which was a significant achievement in itself, though not quite on the same level as the first-class Ranji Trophy.
Meanwhile, to try and prevent sexual harassment of women players, the MCA will aim to appoint more female coaches and other support staff for its teams from the upcoming 2026-27 season, Ingty informed.
