The National Cricket Club’s presence in the BCCI’s working committee has raised the hackles of East Zone members Assam, Orissa, Jharkhand and Tripura.
By the BCCI’s rotation policy, NCC (Kolkata) and Cricket Club of India (Mumbai) get the opportunity to be part of the 24-member decision making committee for one year ending September 2014. The four associations feel that NCC, which doesn’t figure in any domestic tournament, has no business to be part of the working committee.
Orissa Cricket Association president and IPL Governing Council chairman Ranjib Biswal is altogether opposed to the idea of non-playing associations being given a seat in the working committee.
“The NCC does not play cricket at the highest level. We (Orissa, Assam, Jharkhand and Tripura) have taken up the matter with the BCCI. There are constitutional constraints, but we will pursue the case,” Biswal told The Hindu .
Five full members of the BCCI (CCI, NCC, All India Universities, Railways and Services) do not receive television and IPL subsidy, but the Railways and Services play in domestic tournaments.
The CCI too is a private club with several thousand members. It is a member of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) and fields a team in local tournaments and often travels to the United Kingdom and Australia.
“I have no issues with the CCI. It runs cricket activities, staged the ICC women’s World Cup 2013 and is an international venue, but that’s not the case with the NCC,” said Biswal.
The CCI has staged 18 Tests (the last one against Sri Lanka in 2009), eight ODIs and one Twenty20 International. BCCI president N. Srinivasan suggested at the recent AGM that the Tour, Programme and Fixture committee may include CCI in the rotation list.
This has not gone down well with the MCA, which, citing the jurisdiction principle, has opposed a direct allotment of an international match in future to the CCI.
Jharkhand Cricket Association president and chairman of the BCCI Marketing Committee Amitabh Choudhary went a step further: “The NCC does nothing. Please educate me if it is doing anything for cricket.
“Any document or law should reflect the reality of the times. If NCC doesn’t deserve to be in the working committee, it does not deserve to be in the Board.’’
