| After abrogation of special status, Jammu finally gets its share in IPL | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 13: The revocation of the special status seems to have finally brought an end to the “undue pampering” of Kashmir, at least in the field of sports, as all the three players who recently underwent hammer in the Indian Premier League were from Jammu region alone.
The IPL player auction that was held in Kolkatta instead of the traditional venue Bangalore initially had 971 players from all over the world who had registered themselves for the auction, while some players from Kashmir had also offered to play. The franchisees trimmed the list to 332, among whom three faces from Jammu included all-rounder Abdul Samad, batsman Shubham Khajuria and skipper Shubham Pundit, were scheduled to face the final auction. Samad was finally grabbed by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Last year Kashmiri cricketer Rasik Salam was picked up by the Mumbai Indians and played one match for the team. In a major embarrassment for Kashmir, however, Salam was subsequently banned by the BCCI for having allegedly fudged his date of birth.
Before that Manzoor Pandav of Kashmir was picked up by Kings XI Punjab. Prior to Pandav, Muhammad Mudassir, again from Kashmir had made it to the same team, while Parvez Rasool had also been playing the IPL.
Observes hope that the abrogation of the special status will end the years of discrimination faced by Jammu over the last seven odd decades.
From the field of sports to education to infrastructure development, Jammu has often been seen as a victim of “Kashmir centric politics and pampering”.
“Over the decades, the focus of every development and encouragement used to be Kashmir alone but at the cost of Jammu. Now, however, the hope of end to discrimination has finally come in,” said a youth from Jammu.
It is pertinent to mention that on August 5, New Delhi revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two Union Territories.
|
|
