Samiullah Beigh

Srinagar: Former international cricket stars have incessantly debated whether cricket on matting is good for up-and-coming cricketers who aspire to become future international players.

On Kashmir’s turf, two senior Ranji cricketers Parvez Rasool and Samiullah Beigh have differing views.

The debate ‘matting cricket versus turf wicket’ has intensified in Kashmir after Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) said it was organising a mega cricket tournament, J&K Premier League (JKPL), in which over 600 teams from the Valley are expected to participate.

The tournament is to be played on matting wicket.

Parvez Rasool

Talking to a local English daily Greater Kashmir, Kashmir’s international cricketer Parvez Rasool lauded the efforts of JKCA to organise a cricket league and described it as “a step which will revolutionise cricket” in Jammu and Kashmir.

However, senior Ranji cricketer from Kashmir Samiullah Beigh ridiculed Rasool’s views by saying that “matting cricket is a menace.”

In a hard-hitting opinion piece for The Kashmir Press, Beigh argued that “once I played 59 matches in 60 days on matting wicket in different nooks and corners of Jammu and Kashmir only to realise that this cricket hardly served any purpose. Matting cricket is anything but revolutionary.”