Meghalaya were unbeaten in the Ranji Trophy, and a court order replaced their whole team overnight
A High Court ruling in the Meghalaya Cricket Association’s power struggle meant the side that had not lost in three Plate Group games was told to leave the ground, and a hastily assembled XI took on Nagaland instead.
Nov 4, 2026
Meghalaya had not lost a game in this season’s Ranji Trophy Plate Group. They had beaten Manipur and taken first-innings leads against Sikkim and Mizoram, which left them second in the group on 12 points. None of those players took the field when the fourth round started in Shillong on 2 November. The entire XI had been replaced overnight.
The reason was a court case. Last week the High Court of Meghalaya ruled in favour of Meghalaya Cricket Association (MCA) president James Sangma in his fight with the association’s Apex Council. The court found that a 7 September Apex Council meeting, where selection trials were set in motion, was invalid, partly because appointed members from the Accountant General’s office and the Indian Cricketers’ Association had not been invited. Every team selection that came out of it was declared invalid too. The court also upheld the suspension of the MCA’s secretary, Rayonald Kharkamni.
Told to pack up on match day
The old squad had practised up to the eve of the game against Nagaland, and their captain, Kishan Lyngdoh, went to the pre-match meeting. One of the axed players told Cricinfo, on condition of anonymity, that they were assured there that theirs was the only Meghalaya side who would play. Late that night the match referee told the coach that the BCCI was registering a different squad.
The players turned up at the ground anyway, with their kit already in the dressing room, and were told to leave. “This is the first time where a team that has been doing well is being replaced,” their coach told the Highland Post in Shillong.
Sangma’s case is that the Apex Council never had a proper quorum, so nothing it decided stands. He told the same paper that picking players was for the selection committee and he would not get involved.
A side that had never trained together
The new team looked exactly like what it was. According to Cricinfo, they had no training session before the toss, and only one of them, Akash Choudhary, had played a red-ball match this season. Their three guest professionals, Jiwanjot Singh, Srinivas Sharath and Akshay Karnewar, were flown into Shillong over the weekend and had never met their new team-mates. Jiwanjot, the former Punjab opener, was made captain. Two others, Josiah Momin and Manish Sharma, made their first-class debuts.
Nagaland made 254 and bowled the new Meghalaya out for 144. By the third day, Nagaland’s lead was 294.
The axed players have heard nothing from the BCCI about the rest of the season. Some have been told they can turn up for trials before the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy later this month. Kharkamni has said there are two weeks to take the matter to the Supreme Court.
Not the only one in the northeast
Meghalaya are the second northeastern side whose season has been knocked off course by a fight in the boardroom. Arunachal Pradesh had to forfeit their first-round game, also against Nagaland, because of a legal battle between two factions. The BCCI then stepped in, and Apex Council member Khairul Jamal Majumdar now oversees the trials that pick Arunachal’s teams. Meghalaya’s players, for now, have no such arrangement.