It was the year 1951, when Kanpur the famous industrial city was attaining new heights in the arena of sports under the banner of District Sports Association. The locals of Kanpur were taking deep interest in the game of cricket, football, volleyball and hockey. However it was cricket which was enjoyed the most by players and viewers, this liking soon turned into a fever with glories of cricket being sung around. Later on in 1957 looking into the heat of cricket gaining extra-ordinary popularity, District Sports Association decided to promote the game of cricket as one-pointed sports activity thus District Sports Association was christened as Kanpur Cricket Association.
Thus Kanpur Cricket Association took its first formal breath in 1957 with Shri Raja Ram as first chairman and Shri Radhey Shyam Nigam as first secretary of the institution. The journey of the association was going on in a beautiful way with promotion of cricket in the city under the strong leadership of these two dedicated people but destiny has its own role in every ones life be it human being or be it institution so destiny took a sharp turn and in 1962 Shri Radhey Shyam Nigam passed away so to carry on the business Shri R. S. Verma (Jaddu Babu) was appointed as the secretary of the association.
In order to honor the contribution of Shri Radhey Shyam Nigam for the institution, association decided to dedicate some of the cricket activity in his name thus in the same year, 1962 the district league competition was changed to Late Radhey Shyam Memorial league and it continued till 2010-2011. Later on, this same competition was organized by a different name as Kanpur Cricket League for J. S. A trophy for two consecutive years. Further to this the same competition is being held as K. D. M. A. Kanpur Cricket League.
In 1975 Dr. Gaur Hari Singhania, then honorary secretary of UPCA, Shri M. M. Kunjaru former president UPCA, Shri Gopal Mathur. Secretary of Players Association Shri Vipin Seth, Shri O. P. Kukreja, Shri Raja Ram, Chairman of KCA and Shri Ashok Grover made herculean effort to convince all the different members of Players Association and KCA with result of that Players Association got merged with Kanpur Cricket Association.
After merger on May 10, 1976 before beginning of the new session of KCA there was an election held for appointment of the office bearers where in Shri Raja Ram was elected as the president of the association, Shri O. P. Kukreja as the secretary and Shri Vipin Kumar Seth along with Shri Ram Mohan Singh were elected as the Vice President of KCA. Further to this Shri Bhola Singh was appointed as Treasurer and Shri Naimuddin Siddhique as Joint Secretary. Shri Ram Gopal Verma (Pilot), Shri Dinesh Mishra, Shri Gulam Moiuddin, Shri Prakash Mishra and Capt. S. B. Singh were duly appointed as the members of the working committee. All these selections were done on the basis of consensus. Shri Prakash Mishra was given an additional responsibility to serve as competition secretary and he managed it very well. He made valuable contribution in designing the logo of the KCA, the idea of wheel as outer frame and text as inner content was his own conceptualization.
On August 27, 1977 a general body meeting of the association was called upon and the first constitution of the board was unanimously passed by the board members. Before the decade of 1980’s Kanpur gave some excellent players for Ranji Trophy, Conl. C. K. Naidu – 22 out of which late Shankar B. D., late Ranga Ji Sinha, Gopal Mathur, K. V. R. Murthy, O. P. Kukreja, Anand Shukla, Massod Alim, Arun Mishra, Sharad Athawale, Laxmi Hazaria, Rama Mishra, Ashwini Chaturvedi, and Gopal Sharma of Kanpur made place in Indian National Team. By dint of there hard work they brought glory to the city. Following there foot prints Mohd. Kaif from Green Park Hostel also got selected for Indian National Cricket Team. The pledge of bringing laurels to the city continued when Shri Satish Gupta, the umpire from Kanpur got selected as umpire for one day international cricket. Gopal Sharma and Rita Dey achieved the position of being the selector for BCCI.
And this way the success story of KCA went on achieving new horizons with every passing day until 2007 bringing golden glories to city, its people and cricket lovers of the city. During this course of 2007 – 2008, KCA took another interesting turn with the appointment of Dr. Sanjay Kapoor as the chairman of the association. He took the charge and immediately conducted the Radhey Shyam League for Rupees 1,00,000 and it was a big success. In addition to this under the leadership of Dr. Sanjay Kapoor, KCA successfully conducted 26 matches with the help of its affiliates.
In order to bring everyone under one roof for genuine cricket in the year 2010 – 2011 Dr. Sanjay Kapoor facilitated all the clubs who were organizing different tournaments with complimentary use of cricket field and cricket balls. In the same year Radhey Shyam League competition was changed to Kanpur Cricket League for J. S. A. Trophy. Another great contribution made by Dr. Kapoor in promotion of cricket was to provide complete cricket kit free-of-cost to each club associated with KCA, this had virtually not happened in any other state in India.
Since 2013 – 2014 J. S. A Trophy is being played by the name of Kanpur Cricket League for Red Chief Trophy and the prize money for the same has been increased to Rupees 2,50,000. When Dr. Sanjay came as chairman of KCA the total budget of the association was of Rupees 1,00,000 only. In last 7 ~ 8 years with the patronage of Dr. Kapoor the annual budget of the association has increased to Rupees 40,00,000 while association is continuously striving to achieve the bench mark of Rupees 1 Crore per year. Now KCA has it’s own fully computerized office.
And this way the success story of KCA went on achieving new horizons with every passing day until 2007 bringing golden glories to city, its people and cricket lovers of the city. During this course of 2007 – 2008, KCA took another interesting turn with the appointment of Dr. Sanjay Kapoor as the chairman of the association. He took the charge and immediately conducted the Radhey Shyam League for Rupees 1,00,000 and it was a big success. In addition to this under the leadership of Dr. Sanjay Kapoor, KCA successfully conducted 26 matches with the help of its affiliates.
In order to bring everyone under one roof for genuine cricket in the year 2010 – 2011 Dr. Sanjay Kapoor facilitated all the clubs who were organizing different tournaments with complimentary use of cricket field and cricket balls. In the same year Radhey Shyam League competition was changed to Kanpur Cricket League for J. S. A. Trophy. Another great contribution made by Dr. Kapoor in promotion of cricket was to provide complete cricket kit free-of-cost to each club associated with KCA, this had virtually not happened in any other state in India.
Since 2013 – 2014 J. S. A Trophy is being played by the name of Kanpur Cricket League for Red Chief Trophy and the prize money for the same has been increased to Rupees 2,50,000. When Dr. Sanjay came as chairman of KCA the total budget of the association was of Rupees 1,00,000 only. In last 7 ~ 8 years with the patronage of Dr. Kapoor the annual budget of the association has increased to Rupees 40,00,000 while association is continuously striving to achieve the bench mark of Rupees 1 Crore per year. Now KCA has it’s own fully computerized office.
With all the efforts being put in by association Kanpur currently has secured a great position in the game of cricket in the whole state of Uttar Pradesh in different age groups. Association is really proud of players of Kanpur like Ankit Rajput, Kuldeep Yadav and Amit Mishra who are currently part of IPL. Association aims to find and nurture the talent in sports all across the state.
KCA is touching new heights under the strong leadership of Dr. Sanjay Kapoor and the whole association is determined for the promotion of this game of international repute to the fullest.
This website fulfills that aspiration, and does so in a number of ways. Up-to-date association news and developments, match results, upcoming fixtures, coming face-to-face with your favorite player or a coach you admire