KSCA Secretary Santosh Menon: We have a strong infrastructure
The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) Secretary Santosh Menon calls himself a “lucky office-bearer”, who is tasked with building on the good work done by his predecessors.
Learning from past masters:
The KSCA has been lucky to have several former cricketers as administrators. I’ve been lucky to work with stalwarts and past presidents like K
.M. Ramprasad, Srikantadatta
Narasimharaja Wadiyar and Ashok
Anand. Similarly, I’ve been fortunate to be mentored by one of the best administrators I have known — Brijesh Patel. In recent times, I have benefitted from working alongside Sudhakar Rao. Working with them has helped me immensely to understand the game, and the needs of cricketers. The KSCA has always had cricketers at the helm, and this has helped the association in a big way.
On the multiple first-class venues in Karnataka:
Karnataka is the only State in the country which has more than 12 first-class venues. We have stadiums in Mysore, Shimoga, Hubli, Belgaum, apart from six venues in Bengaluru. We regularly host India 'A' and domestic matches, India men’s and women’s senior team camps, India under-19 camps and so on. This highlights the strong infrastructure that is in place in our State. We will soon build fully-equipped stadiums in Raichur, Davanagere, Gadag, Hassan, Kolar and Coorg. We’ve taken the first step in this regard by acquiring land in all these places. Our vision is to have good infrastructure in each district of Karnataka.
Complementing infrastructure with cricket structure:
We have academies for all age groups for both men and women. Our district camps and inter-district matches are overseen by selectors from Bengaluru. We pick the zonal teams, play inter-zonal matches, and the best of the lot are picked for the State sides. I don’t think any State conducts as many matches as we do. In just Bengaluru city alone, we conduct 2,500 matches in one cricket season. If you consider all districts, we conduct around 5,000-6,000 matches in a season. Every youngster gets ample opportunities to showcase his/her skill. That is why we have a rich talent pool.
Focus on stakeholders:
We take care of all stakeholders. The club secretary — who nurtures every talented youngster — is given practice balls, training facilities, allowance for matches, good prize money etc.. We conduct BCCI refresher courses for umpires, video analysts and scorers on a regular basis. We have similar workshops for groundsmen and curators. Every registered player and umpire is insured. Even if he/she is travelling to the ground and has an accident, the insurance will take care of their medical expenditure. Some players may require an expensive surgery for a major injury — we take care of them too.
Teaching life skills:
We want to teach all cricketers good ethics, morals and values so that they become good citizens. At the junior academy, we will bring in an expert to teach youngsters how to handle money and fame. We will use a media management expert. We will have these sessions soon. We are also keen on educating cricketers on all facets of the game. Most cricketers struggle to adapt to regular jobs after their playing careers come to an end. We want to train them to become coaches, umpires, scorers, video analysts, physios, trainers, cricket journalists and so on. Not everyone will make it as a cricketer, so we must provide other job avenues in the game itself. That way, the person continues to stay in the cricket ecosystem.
Digitalisation of the system:
We have a complete player digital database, with each player given a unique ID number. A boy/girl might play for a particular club and in the under-19 league — the complete stats can be accessed in one click of a button. This is a very useful feature to track the success of players from the Mofussil areas. We also have online scoring for all our matches — inter-school, zonals, eagues etc.. Impersonation, which may have happened until a few years ago, is not possible now, because we have each player's thumb impression. We don’t collect player signatures on team lists at the start of the match anymore. The player simply makes his thumb impression on the scorer’s ipad to mark his attendance.
The match referee's report and umpire’s report is published online. After the match, the captain can evaluate the performance of the umpires. These ratings are assessed periodically to see how the umpire is faring. We live stream certain matches, which is useful for coaches and for assessing umpires.
Transparent coaches identification:
We have a transparent process for identifying coaches for all age groups. We give coaches ample time for camps and practice matches. Prior to BCCI tournaments, we invite teams from other States. This gives players ample match practice before the tournament starts.
Bringing past cricketers into the fold:
We take care of past cricketers with pension, to recognise their contribution to Karnataka cricket. We also encourage past cricketers to get into various aspects of the game like coaching, administration etc.