'Hurt and robbed' - Nagaland captain Rongsen Jonathan after his maiden List A ton was deemed invalid

Scoring a century at any level of cricket is a big thing for any batsman. Anyone who has ever picked up a bat, dreams of scoring a century and raise that bat in order to soak in the applause of that ton from the crowd and his own teammates. But what if that moment is taken away from you despite all the hard work put in on a difficult surface? Something similar happened to Nagaland captain Rongsen Jonathan in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Nagaland played Manipur in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, the team’s first match of its second domestic season ever. The match was played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Dehradun on a damp surface that saw Jonathan ride a tough pitch to smash a century while batting at No.3, but then BCCI decided to deem the century invalid as it has rescheduled the same fixture against Manipur.

‘Have written to BCCI, yet to receive any answer from them’

“Hurt, upset, annoyed, robbed,” were the words that came out of 33-year-old Jonathan. The match held on September 24, and many others were rescheduled after torrential downpours in the host cities rendered a number of games across Groups A, B and the Plate group incomplete. Jonathan had made 103, the first century from Nagaland in the format, but this decision has rendered his ton worthless.

“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,” Jonathan told ESPNCricinfo.

The official of the match on condition of anonymity said that the surface was “not unplayable if you were willing to fight.” Jonathan said that he has written to BCCI General Manager, cricket operations, Saba Karim, but was yet to receive any answer. “It hurts all the more because cricketers from the north-east [of India] have so much gone 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 said.

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