The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will wait till Tuesday, November 17, for a response from the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) of its readiness to stage the fourth Test between India and South Africa at the Ferozeshah Kotla from December 3 to 7.
At the 86th AGM here on November 9, the BCCI had served a deadline to the DDCA to revert by November 17, failing which the Test would be awarded to the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) which will then host a first Test match at its Gahunje Village stadium in the outskirts of the city.
The DDCA had staged four Ranji Trophy matches at the Kotla and hence the BCCI could not withdraw the Test from a member-association at the AGM itself.
The DDCA has tax-related issues with the local government and alleged accounting malpractices to deal with, and the BCCI’s mandate to the DDCA was to obtain all clearances from local authorities so that all services would be in order during the Test match.
The BCCI is no way inclined to allow, any entity, other than the DDCA to stage the Test match. This was explained to the representatives of the Delhi Government who met the BCCI president Shashank Manohar in Nagpur on Saturday.
Seven years ago, the BCCI, and in particular Manohar, had rejected a proposal by TISCO to stage the one-day international against England at the Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur. This was after the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) surrendered the match following differences with TISCO that owned the Keenan Stadium.
The BCCI members are not openly talking about the way the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that Sourav Ganguly and Avishek Dalmiya would be the president and joint secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). Whispers are heard that political parties and State governments should not interfere with the democratic process of sports bodies.
Opinion is gaining among the cricketing fraternity that the Supreme Court-appointed R.M. Lodha committee should look into grievances of different members of the Board and in DDCA’s case, ban the proxy voting which has been the order for many decades. The BCCI is hopeful of the committee recommending election reforms and appointment of grievance cells.
