Bhubaneswar, 19/7: Odisha Cricket Association conducted the First Phase of the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of District Infrastructure Development Program and Cricket Academies in accordance with their much ambitious Vision-2024 project.
The 15 affiliated district units that were inaugurated in the 1st Phase of the District Infrastructure
Development Program namely Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Balangir, Sonepur, Nuapada, Angul, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Mayurbhanj, Bhadrak, Balasore, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Khordha and Gajapati. The meeting was centrally conducted inside the OCA Conference Hall Premises on a virtual platform and was live streamed across social media platforms.
In this meeting an AV file was played which show cased the phenomenal progress of the Odisha
Cricket Association. Also the video messages of eminent international cricketers were played. The video messages of Sports Minister – Tusharkanti Behera, Principal Secretary Vishal Kumar Dev and Secretary, FAO & Former Secretary OCA & OOA – Asirbad Behera were also shared in an AV format. During the proceedings International Cricketer
Debashis Mohanty, Sanjay Raul, Shiv Sundar Das, Pragyan Ojha shared short messages and praised the effort of OCA.
Chief Coach of Odisha Cricket Wasim Jaffer in his video message shared about the reforms that has taken place in Odisha Cricket and their much ambitious project OCA Vision@2024 under which the OCA has developed in
all verticals of the game. The professionalism and spirited culture developed in the recent times has evolved OCA as most pro-active association in our country he added. The VISION@2024 being an ambitious project of Odisha Cricket Association, to build a robust
ecosystem of cricket in our State. It aims at providing turf wickets across the State which will provide
equal & uniform opportunities, to enhance the performance of aspiring cricketers of our State.
In this context, the Odisha Cricket Association is planning to develop the ground along with 2 nos. of
Turf-Wickets for Practice, 1 Cement/Synthetic Wicket etc. for the same. Since turf wickets is a
prerequisite in modern day cricket and due to scarcity of turf wickets in our State hampering the
progress of our cricketers at State and National level, Odisha Cricket Association is taking this
initiative to help develop Turf-Wickets across the State which will eventually nurture and mould the
future upcoming cricketing generations of our State. In addition to this, the Odisha Cricket
Association is also planning to supply Cricketing equipment’s, Training equipment’s, Pitch Essential
Equipment’s and Ground Equipment’s. This is done with a sense that it’ll serve as Cricket Academies,
where the best cricketing talents in the respective districts can be accommodated and nurtured into
future cricketing sensations.
Also, the Odisha Cricket Association is going to appoint a qualified coach for the respective Cricket
Academies in each district, who will spearhead the development and progress of the cricketers and
help impart their knowledge and expertise to foster the talents and mould them into established
cricketers.
In this occasion, Shri Sanjay Behera Secretary, OCA informed that very soon Odisha Cricket
Association will be developing Infrastructure across rest of the districts. This will help cricketers in
the grass root level get the top-notch facilities and advanced coaching, which will be highly beneficial
for our state. The meeting was attended by the Pankaj Lochan Mohanty (President, Odisha Cricket Association), Sanjay Behera (Secretary, Odisha Cricket Association), Akshaya Kumar Samanta (Vice-President, Odisha Cricket Association), Mehtab Khan (Joint Secretary, Odisha Cricket Association), Bikash Pradhan (Treasurer, Odisha Cricket Association), Suvashis Senapati (Apex Council Member, Odisha Cricket Association).The meeting was concluded by the President,Pankaj Lochan Mohanty by extending his vote of thanks.