Assam Cricket Association (ACA) has put in place several lucrative cash incentives for the players in the senior and junior levels from the next session. The ACA has roped in former India batsman Pravin Amre as batting consultant for the Ranji team.

ACA president Ramen Dutta said that they are trying all the measures to encourage and motivate the players to better their performances.

“We have decided to introduce incentives for the players who perform well in the various tournaments for the state in the coming seasons. Starting with the senior level – a batsman who scores a hundred in the Ranji Trophy matches will get Rs 2 lakh and in the limited over tournaments like Vijay Hazare and Syed Mustak Ali trophy, each century maker will get Rs 1 lakh. In the senior women too, the century makers will get Rs 1 lakh each. Similarly in the junior level too, the players will get cash incentives,” Dutta told the reporters during a press conference at the ACA office in Guwahati on Saturday.

Under 16, 19 and 23 age-group players, both men and women, will be getting Rs 1 lakh each for a century. For the bowlers also there will be similar incentives. Each bowler with a 5-wicket haul in an innings in the senior men tournaments, both in the four-day and limited over games, will be given Rs 1 lakh each. And 10-wicket haul in a match in four day matches, the particular bowler will get Rs 3 lakh. And 10-wicket haul in limited over matches will get Rs 2 lakh.

Senior women and junior men-women categories, the bowlers who gets a 10-wicket haul will be given Rs 2 lakh.

ACA secretary Devajit Saikia said that they are also focusing on grooming new talents with more tournaments, especially school-level tournaments. As per the decision, ACA has decided to resume the inter-school cricket tournament in a new avatar.

“To focus at the school cricket is very important if we need to have more number of good players. So, we will resume the inter-school cricket tournament which was not organized for the last several years. We will start the school tournament up to class X from January 18 next year and the trophy will be named after Late Pulin Das who was one of the pioneers of the sporting scene of the state,” said Saikia.

Besides, the ACA has also announced the dates for the inter-district tournaments – JK Barua Trophy (under 19) will start from December 20 and RG Barua Trophy (under 16) will start from December 14.

Another major development for the Assam cricket is to have former India international Pravin Amre as batting consultant.

“We have won matches on the strength of our bowlers and we have realised that the batsmen have failed repeatedly to live up to the expectations. So, we thought of investing something to improve the batting. We are lucky to have Pravin Amre as our batting consult. He is one of the top batting coaches at the present time in the country,” said Saikia.

Apart from that, former Ranji player Naba Konwar has been inducted in the Apex Council of ACA whose name was recommended by the Indian Cricketers Association (ICA).