Kamal Ghorui
KALYANI: History had barely settled in when the phone rang. A familiar face flashed up on a video call. Minutes after Jammu and Kashmir sealed a spot in the Ranji Trophy final, the team heard from BCCI president Mithun Manhas, a former head of the J&K cricket’s ad-hoc committee. It was fitting. J&K first entered the Ranji Trophy in the 1959-60 season. For decades they were treated as plucky participants, rarely as genuine threats. The transformation into a side that now talks — and plays — like title contenders has had Manhas’ imprint on it.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“We have done it, Mithun,” J&K coach Ajay Sharma shouted out on the phone, “Mithun and I go back a long way. He made his debut for Delhi under me. I know how hard he had worked for this.”There is a fairy-tale quality to J&K’s rise as a cricketing power: overcoming odds, brushing aside doubts, and learning the most important skill of all — self-belief. But this isn’t a story built on romance alone. It has also been shaped by method, patience and the hard labour of building a culture.
Former Delhi player Sharma himself admits he struggled to get a grip when he first took charge before the 2022-23 season. “When I joined for the first time, I was handling 38 boys. I was alone then,” Sharma said.The set-up looks very different now. J&K have a bowling coach in P Krishnakumar and Dishant Yagnik as their fielding coach. These are small additions on paper, significant ones in a dressing room trying to grow into a winning unit.“Initially it was challenging because it was a very different culture in J&K. It took me around two years to understand these kids. It took time to bond with them,” he said. “I was hard on them initially. But today they see me as an elder brother.”The first shift, Sharma believes, had to happen in the mind. “These boys only think about white-ball cricket and the IPL. We have players from the state in the IPL. But Mithun, as J&K cricket administrator, had a vision and that is to win the Ranji trophy. Ranji trophy still remains the country’s premier tournament. If you do well here your name goes ahead,” Sharma said.From there, the work became more deliberate: identify a core and keep backing it. A group of 24-25 boys began to take shape — some, like left-arm pacer Sunil Kumar, emerging through talent-hunt competitions. “It’s the same bunch which has developed as we kept giving them confidence,” Sharma stated.Alongside confidence came ambition — not the loud, throwaway kind, but some-thing planted carefully and watered over seasons. “I slowly made them understand that you are all talented guys and you are all around 19-20 years of age. You have the game in you so if you apply a little, you can play for India,” he said.Infrastructure, too, mattered. J&K’s push included pitch preparation, with Sharma noting the state now has both black and red soil pitches, a rare advantage for a side looking to be versatile at home and resilient away.Preparation became a season-defining theme. “Pre-season is very important and we started playing the Buchi Babu (in Chennai) for the last two-three years,” Sharma pointed out. Facing bigger sides there, and surviving those examinations, helped the group believe it could beat anyone.“J&K has become a team to reckon with. Everybody is scared of playing J&K now,” Sharma thundered. “We have all bases covered having both quality fast bowlers and spinners. We have won both the knockout matches away from home.”
