Congratulations to the entire BEDCL cricketing fraternity for a successful 2022 season. As a Board, we truly appreciate your cooperation and understanding throughout the season which was our first post-pandemic season. Many teams returned from the 2-year hibernation, and we had a slew of new teams to accommodate. Grounds/facilities were also a challenge (some being taken away, some not available) and we faced many adversities trying to ensure the season is completed as scheduled, even if by means of an extension to the end dates. As a Board, we did everything we could to make this an enjoyable summer of cricket...and maybe a small part of enjoyable fall cricket too.

Most importantly, we want to appreciate our membership who stood by us and helped us in many ways to get this accomplished. We had a huge umpire shortage during the first half of the season. Matches had to be played without umpires being present, and that is a very important issue we intend to correct in the coming years. For this year, we reached out to the membership, and we were pleasantly surprised to see so many players from amongst the teams step up to the plate. In contrast, in the second half of the season, we had two umpires present for most games, and that is a massive complement to the membership for their contribution in making that happen. Other issues included some statistical complexities such as scheduling challenges, especially with grounds being taken away - some at last minute and some for an extended period - all after the schedule was prepared. As you can understand it is a huge task to now readjust matches and schedules to get the season completed in time and to its logical conclusion. We had to deal with issues such as that odd double-booking, ground unavailability or being unplayable, schedule adjustment problems, etc. Once again, we are thankful to our membership that pulled the weight along with us and helped us in every way. There were protests and grievances lodged. Some were attended to in time, others were delayed beyond a reasonable timeframe for myriad of reasons. We agree that this was not the best of the ways to manage the grievance process, and we assure you this will be improved to see that protests are heard and decided upon in a reasonable amount of time. Even through this, our teams stayed course and were patient with us as we dealt with these challenges.

Despite all the hurdles, we (the Board and the clubs/teams/players - as a TEAM) made it through a very satisfying and successful 2022 season. In every aspect of this season, we learned something new and decided to adapt and evolve into a better version of ourselves as a league. This entails improving things like website presentation, adding online scoring capabilities, CRM module to do any official communication with the Board, etc. We also got a gist of what the membership wants and are working towards making some more events/activities happen to provide opportunities to our players. You will certainly hear about all this in the near future. But right now, it is time to revel and bask in the completion of one more season enjoying the sport we all love so much - CRICKET.

So, congratulations to each one of you, and even more importantly - "THANK YOU" to the membership for their patience and cooperation. Looking forward to the 2023 season with eager anticipation. Have a wonderful off-season till then.

Gokul Kamat - Vice President, BEDCL