After BCCI’s no, cricket out of SAG

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 11

Cricket lovers in the northeastern states of Assam and Meghalaya have been left a disappointed lot after the BCCI flatly refused to send its team for the next year’s South Asian Games (SAG) from January 10 to 22.

In a major blow to the SAG organisers, who have been working hard to keep the importance of the biennial multi-sport event alive, the BCCI expressed its inability to send its Under-21 team for the T20 competition, citing a packed schedule during that period. As a result, cricket has been dropped from the list of sports featuring in the Games.

A senior Indian Olympic Association (IOA) functionary told The Tribune that the BCCI never showed much interest in the invitation extended by the Sports Ministry on June 23, which requested the Board to send an age-group team for the regional meet.

The Ministry wanted to include cricket as a discipline in the SAG as Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal was keen on developing cricket infrastructure in his state capital, Guwahati, as well as in Shillong. The inclusion of cricket would have added glamour and attracted sponsors to the event.

It was hoped that the BCCI secretary, Anurag Thakur, who is also a two-time BJP parliamentarian, would work to allow an age-group team to participate in the SAG, especially as his own party colleague (Sonowal) had made this request. But that was not to be. The BCCI’s decision is in continuance of its defiant approach of not sending the Indian teams to multi-sport events. The BCCI did not send its team to the 2010 edition of the SAG in Dhaka, when T20 cricket made its debut. Last year, too, the BCCI had refused to field the men’s and women’s teams at the Incheon Asian Games.

The Board’s decision to stay away from the SAG hasn’t gone down well with the other participating countries. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh Olympic Associations have registered their strong protest with the IOA for not working enough to convince the BCCI to send a team.  When the heads of the South Asian Olympic associations met in Delhi recently, they expressed their displeasure over the diminishing popularity of the SAG in the absence of cricket.

A former BCCI administrator informed that the Board’s reluctance to abide by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) controversial 'whereabouts' clause concerning Indian players and fear of subjecting them to out-of-competition dope testing might have led to the refusal.

The official said that the BCCI knows that by accepting the proposal to send its team to the SAG, it will become a signatory to the WADA’s ‘whereabouts’ clause, like the federations of all other sports. “The BCCI doesn’t follow the government’s stand on the anti-doping code. It has maintained that the WADA should drop the ‘whereabouts’ clause for Indian players, considering security and privacy concerns. By sending its cricketers to the SAG, the Board would be risking them to dope-testing as part of the international testing pool,” the official said. Former cricketers Kirti Azad and Surinder Khanna flayed the BCCI’s decision for staying away from the SAG at a time when India is hosting the Games.

“There are no financial gains involved by participating in a prestigious event like the SAG. There are more lucrative things to do amongst themselves by organising the IPL or going on tours. That’s all I can say,” said former India all-rounder Azad.

Khanna, a former India wicketkeeper, said that the ICC should ensure that all cricket-playing countries do send their teams to such important tournaments because of India “heading” the cricket’s world body.

“We played in one of the Commonwealth Games tournament in Malaysia. So, why can’t we play in other such tournaments? This can help cricket spread its wings around the world, which the ICC also has been doing for so many years. T20 cricket is getting so popular amongst the masses and the participation in the SAG will only add to it,” he said. “India, being a cricketing force, should come forward to spread the game. When our country is hosting the Games, I see the inclusion of cricket making much more sense because it will have widespread coverage.”