In August 2016, Jammu & Kashmir's former pacer Samiullah Beigh was running around and bowling with a tennis ball against the wall of his house compound. He would catch it on the rebound, and go back to his mark to bowling again. That was the limitation of his preparation for the upcoming Ranji Trophy season which was set to be played in neutral venues. "I wasn't the only one preparing like that," Beigh reminds.

The encounter of Burhan Wani in July that year had led to violent protests across Kashmir, leading to a 53-day strict curfew being imposed, with some areas under restriction till late in the year. Understandably the preparation of cricketers were bound to be impacted. It wasn't the first time that Kashmiri cricketers had trained under such restraints. It was almost becoming a norm. Curfews imposed during major civil unrest in 2008 and 2010 as well coincided with these preparations, so did the floods in 2014, and the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. No pre-season tournaments, selection matches getting scrapped were all part of the routine wherein the Jammu & Kashmir players would turn up for the domestic season unprepared.

For a bunch of players who were content with participating in the tournament, winning a one-odd game, and keeping their place in the side cemented, and with it, the badge of being a first-class cricketer, even that limited preparation served their purpose. Hope for anything more seemed unrealistic.

"All that changed once Bishan Singh Bedi came in as the coach in 2010," Beige claims. Jammu & Kashmir started winning. They nearly beat a Delhi team - which included Virender Sehwag, Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma - that season, reached the quarterfinals of Ranji Trophy in 2013-14, beat Mumbai in Mumbai in 2014-15, and through all that, Parvez Rasool and Umran Malik went on to play for the national team. They found a ray of hope, belief instilled, and aspirations soured.

In a few years, many players from the state made a mark in the IPL - Abdul Damad, Umran Mailk, Rasikh Salam Dar, Yudhvir Singh Charak. And in 2025-26, they eventually became Ranji Trophy champions. But what does that change really?

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Jammu & Kashmir asserted their dominance and displayed their talent at the biggest level in Indian domestic cricket when they beat Karnataka, a team that boasted of five cricketers with international experience, in the final of Ranji Trophy. That they could do that in front of a 5000-odd crowd - the kind of numbers rarely seen in domestic competitions played in tier-2 towns - cheering for the home side, must have been a lot of pressure, surely.

Paras Dogra, the J&K captain, laughed off when asked if such a big audience must have fuelled the pressure for their team. "Our boys are used to playing in front of lacs of people in local games," he said.

Beige validates this experience and shoots off a story from September 2025 when the entire district of Pulwama had come to a standstill to watch a local cricket match, where teams are invited to play by private organisers.

"Roads were blocked, police had to be called in to make way for the vehicles. Had it happened in Srinagar, it would have been understandable. We are used to seeing tens of thousands turn up for local games. That such a craze existed even in a remote region like Pulwama, was surprising," Beige says.

He goes on to add that there is something that Dogra may have forgotten to mention - the sight of hundreds of children playing cricket on Fridays and Sundays in Eidgahs (huge vacant lands for Eid prayers) across Srinagar

"Just like Aazad Maidaan, hundreds of kids play there just for the love of the game, with no aspirations of going to a higher level in cricket."

When asked why there is no aspiration to take that passion to a higher level, Beigh shoots back. "Because there is no hope."

"The absence of hope is the one missing link," he adds. "J&K's cricketing talent is outstanding, passion is unmatched but no hope of graduating from a local maidaan to an IPL team."

As celebrations were planned back home, Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir, arrived in Hubballi on the final day of the Ranji Trophy final. The victory for the state team was along expected and the celebration was premature. The magnanimity of the moment was understandable.

Even Waheed ur Rahman Para, a member of the J&K assembly from People's Democratic Party, tweeted at the end of the fourth day of the final, "At a time when so much around us feels fractured, when institutions become flashpoints, when young people feel unheard, when debates over region, religion, and identity grow louder, this victory feels different. It feels personal to all of us... Hindus and Muslims stood shoulder to shoulder, playing for one badge, one dream. They transcended religious, regional, and geographical divides, taking on and defeating elite teams from across the country. That's no small feat."

The political voice and involvement at the time of success of their players is not surprising - even using it for a larger social commentary. But what would this victory really mean for Jammu & Kashmir's cricket?

Over the past decade and a half, many states have won their maiden Ranji Trophy title - Rajasthan, Vidarbha, Saurashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh. But how much has cricket in the region benefited from their success? And how many players from those title-winning sides have gone on to play in the Indian Test team?

Has Jammu & Kashmir - with much bigger infrastructural and social challenges - just given its cricket-loving youth a moment of hope? Dig a little deeper, and the real issues confront itself.

"Here, schools have very limited infrastructure for cricket," Beige says. "Barely any schools have turf wickets, where some local player serves as the coach. All the local cricket is majorly played on matting wickets. There are no professional academies where a parent can take their kid, if they are talented and need to be groomed. Around the age of 14-16 when you badly need an academy to hone your skills, there are none.

"Since we have no professional training in turf wicket, when you get selected in Under-19, we suddenly realise that everyone else is so technically sound, while we are so raw and naive. That's the first shock we receive. It disappoints players to the level that many give up cricket at that very stage because they believe they have been left too far behind and won't be able to catch up with the others. Under-19 and Under-23 level in every way - batting, bowling, wicketkeeping.

"The third shock comes at the Ranji Trophy level. Although a few things have changed since the coming of the Mithun Manhas committee, the infrastructure has slightly developed but there is still so much work to do. There is only one ground in the entire state owned by JKCA. The only ground where a turf wicket is available for players to practise is only in Srinagar. So everyone has to travel all the way till there to practise. We have no professional coaches or trainers to help out."

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One of the reasons for the disadvantageous situation that cricketers from the state find themselves in is the constant turmoil within Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association, marred with allegations of corruption and local issues between clubs.

"There has been a caretaking body in place, but their hands are tied. They can't do what a full-fledged association can. These internal bickerings won't die down soon. BCCI has to stand up and own JKCA even if it means running from the headquarters, we don't mind. As cricketers, we would be the happiest. As long as our academies and infrastructure are built, our coaches and trainers give us proper training, if our cricketers are getting due support, we as a cricketing fraternity would be all happy and that would improve our cricket. If they don't do so, all this build-up will die down in a few years."

The last few years have been slightly easier for the current lot of players, but Beigh asks, how much has it really changed?

"There have been no curfews, but when you don't have infrastructure, the situation remains the same. The only difference is that, in 2016, I had to play in my compound, now the players get to train in the ground. But they too have to train all by themselves, without any supervision or facilities. We need more grounds, coaches, camps, more Under-19 zonal camps to be organised in J&K so that players get hope"

Without the infrastructural support, the Ranji Trophy win would count for little, believes Beigh, because as professional cricketers their excuses count for nothing. Even his time of bowling with the tennis ball inside his house compound was his ray of hope as a cricketer.

"I had to do that because I knew I was competing with people who are getting to practise and compete all through the year. At that level, there is no room for excuses. I can't say, "Oh! My circumstances were like this and like that." No one will accept that. Growing up in tougher situations, cricketers of Jammu & Kashmir become mentally tougher than others. When we see a ray of hope, we cling on to that ray of hope like that's the last."

That ray of hope he was referencing was cricket then. And it's cricket now.