Vijay Hazare Trophy | Rongson Jonathen feels ârobbedâ after first List A century declared invalid
Nagaland captain Rongsen Jonathan was absolutely distraught when his maiden list A century was ruled out by BCCI. Their encounter in the Vijay Hazare Trophy against Manipur and many other Group A, B and Plate group matches were rescheduled due to torrential rains, thereby discarding Jonathan's ton.
It was very difficult for Rongsen Jonathan to describe how bad he was feeling, given that being a 33-year-old this was his first ton and his side Nagaland were playing the first game of their second season ever having received recognition from the BCCI.
"Hurt, upset, annoyed, robbed," Jonathan told ESPN Cricinfo.
Jonathan remained unbeaten on 103, scoring more than 50% of his team's total runs when they were initially reduced to 46 for 4. The match was called off when the rain arrived and Nagaland had bowled 8.4 overs. According to Jonathan, 60% of the game was complete.
"Nearly 60% of the match was completed. I understand the decision to reschedule matches is taken while keeping the bigger picture in mind, but why should players be robbed of their records just because a result wasn't possible? As players, we work hard, train all year round and, in the first match of the season, if somebody scores runs and it goes as a blank in his record, he is bound to feel hurt," he further added.
He stressed how young players from the north-east are misguided and mistreated and the one opportunity of inspiration that they could get after reading the newspaper and seeing that one among them has scored a hundred was robbed from them. He further said that he got no response from Saba Karim who is BCCI's general manager when asked for clarification.
"I wrote to the BCCI, I asked for a clarification from Saba Karim [the BCCI's general manager, cricket operations], but I haven't received a response. It's upsetting for individuals. It hurts all the more because cricketers from the north-east [of India] have so much going against them. When somebody in the local media reads about a century or a five-wicket haul, it really inspires young kids and more people to the game. But now when you have nothing to show, there's little we can do," he signed off.
To this Saba Karim replied by saying that they were rescheduling because every team was not getting enough game time to play.