Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) deputy president Mehmood Abdi has slammed the Board for its “baffling” attitude towards the association. Abdi termed the Board’s action to >suspend Rajasthan Cricket Association for >electing Lalit Modi as its president as “vengeance, hate, prejudicial grudge” at the behest of N. Srinivasan.
“The action of the BCCI speaks volumes about its sheer arrogance and utter disregard for the law of the land and public sentiment, as it has demonstrated with the ban on the RCA in a most unfair and undemocratic manner,” he said in a statement. Abdi said it was “completely bewildering that a democratically and duly elected body is destabilised within minutes of it being elected at the whim of the BCCI.”
Abdi alleged that the Board was still functioning at the instructions of Srinivasan, who was asked to step aside as BCCI president by the Supreme Court following the probe into allegations of betting and match-fixing in the sixth edition of the IPL.
“It is unfortunate that the individual-centric attitude of the BCCI has led to such an impasse, that it stands currently at the lowest ebb of its credibility. Especially since the BCCI has chosen to amend its by-laws just to suit one Mr. N. Srinivasan several times and that too within a short span of five years,” Abdi asserted.
Abdi said the Board was following “different rules for different individuals” and the RCA had been suspended in a “shameful manner” to “stall the return of one Mr. Lalit Modi.”
According to Abdi, the RCA was not compelled to follow the BCCI by-laws. “Though the RCA is a constituent member of the BCCI, it is in no way subservient to the BCCI. Especially since it is governed by the Sports Act under which Mr. Lalit Modi has not earned any disqualification. In case of a clash between a law (Sports Act) and private contract (BCCI by-laws), the law will prevail.”
He also ridiculed the fact that “Sanjay Patel (Board secretary), who himself has been suspended by the Baroda Cricket Association for violation its by-laws, is suspending the RCA.
Puppet
The interim Board president N. Shivlal Yadav, in Abdi’s opinion, is a “puppet” in the hands of Srinivasan. “Affiliation and disaffiliation is the power of the general house of the Board. The interim president seems to have acted at the behest of His Masters Voice and in undue haste without taking the members of BCCI into confidence,” insisted Abdi.
“It is shocking that giving a complete miss to all the norms of democratic due process Mr. Shivlal Yadav and Mr. Sanjay Patel, without calling at least the working committee to discuss the action to be taken in respect of RCA, proceeded to act against the RCA in the most arbitrary and summary manner.”
Abdi claimed that the Board cannot appoint an ad-hoc committee in place of the RCA. “Under the Rajasthan Sports Act, it is only the Registrar of Co-operative Societies who can appoint an ad-hoc committee, that too for failure of the sports association to comply with the provisions of the Sports Act.
“Moreover, under the Sports Act, no person or body can use the word ‘Rajasthan’ or represent Rajasthan in any sports unless their sports association is duly registered and formed under the Sports Act,” Abdi said.
