The officials of the banned Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) are now upbeat with the news that former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi’s passport has been restored and he is expected to come to the Pink City soon.
There was an air of optimism in the RCA office situated in the north wing of the Sawai Man Singh Stadium and sweets were distributed among the office bearers and employees.
It was felt that with restoration of Modi’s passport, RCA would be able to carry on its fight against BCCI with more determination.
Mehmood Abdi, the General Counsel and Constituted Attorney of Lalit Modi and Deputy President of RCA said that the restoration of Modi’s passport vindicates the state association’s stand.
“Our stand that his passport was revoked essentially on erroneous and legally unsustainable grounds has been vindicated by this order. The court has found that there was no case at all for revocation of his passport and the passport authorities were not justified in revoking his passport as there was no element public interest involved.”
He said, ”We are very delighted with this development and the now like any Indian passport holder Modi can freely travel on his passport. His personal presence at RCA will enhance the image and working of the association from strength to strength and Modi will now actually lead us from the front.”
“The return of Modi is going to impact the cricket scene hugely, particularly the internal dynamics of BCCI where all those feeling suffocated with the autocratic style of N Srinivasan will now have a rallying point to take him (Srinivasan) and his coterie on.“
The BCCI had suspended RCA after Modi was elected president. Later, it had formed a special committee to look after the cricket affairs of the disputed state cricket associations like RCA.
Despite that, RCA had declared that it would go ahead with selection of its team for domestic tournaments although its name was not included by the BCCI for the domestic cricket season.
