2 min readMar 3, 2026 06:02 AM IST
First published on: Mar 3, 2026 at 06:02 AM IST
The more instructive number from J&K’s maiden Ranji Trophy triumph is not 66 — the years they waited — but 30. That is roughly how many T20 and T10 leagues JKCA chief Brigadier Anil Kumar Gupta shut the door on after taking over in 2021. While the rest of Indian cricket chased the franchise boom, J&K made a bet: That a region starved of recognition would find its redemption in the grind of red-ball cricket, not quick money. On Saturday, that bet paid off.
It would have been easier to let talented youngsters from Baramulla and Kalakote disappear into T20 entertainment. Gupta chose otherwise. Selectors fanned out to Kishtwar, Poonch and Kupwara. Red-clay wickets were laid as far as Katra to simulate southern conditions. Auqib Nabi, rejected at trials twice, drove 60 km daily to train. A team that lost a quarter-final by a single run last year returned with quiet fury. The Karnataka symmetry is almost too neat. They lifted the Ranji in 1982, the same year J&K recorded their first-ever win in the competition. That it took 44 more years speaks to everything this region has endured — insurgency, neglect, and the prejudice of being considered permanent also-rans.
What makes this resonate beyond sport is the team itself. Captain Paras Dogra, 41 and in his 24th Ranji season, was a Himachali brought in specifically to bridge the Valley-Jammu faultline. Across the country, fans who rarely follow domestic cricket were tracking scores and demanding a Test cap for Nabi. A region long defined by conflict had united everyone else behind it. The BCCI should study this — not merely to hand Nabi his India cap, but to ask what becomes possible when administration backs process over profit. Some lessons, like some trophies, take 66 years to arrive.
