Manhas, who has also been director of cricket at the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA), said Shah was one of the few who took care of J&K and improved conditions and improved cricket infrastructure in the state, the results of which are clearly visible as the Paras Dogra-led side not only played their first-ever final but also won it 67 years after their first season.
“It was a great journey, which started in June 2021. I would like to especially thank the BCCI of that time and especially Jay (Shah) bhai. He was the first secretary (in decades) to come to Jammu and see our plight, and there was no looking back,” Manhas said after the win.
Manhas has also been credited with captaining J&K Paras Dogra and head coach Ajay Sharma for lending their decades of experience to a side where cricket was seen as something to compete and not something to win. The BCCI president believes that having seniors like Paras and Ajay exuded confidence in the dressing room, which ultimately led them to a historic win.
I am a person of process and believe that you need to have seniors around you. With the arrival of Paras we got this stability and calm, and with Ajay bhai he has the experience to play five finals. The kind of batting he used to do has helped the boys grow. The best thing that happened is that they started to believe in themselves.
“This win is dedicated to all the people back home and all the ex-cricketers back home. All the other teams like Uttarakhand played extremely well and they have also started believing in it. It is only a matter of time before the results will follow,” Manhas concluded.
Notably, Jammu & Kashmir became the eighteenth team in history to win a Ranji Trophy title. Mumbai, 42, has the most titles in the red-ball tournament Karnataka – the team that defeated J&K in the final – is still the second most successful team with eight titles to their name.
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