Old guard’s non-cooperation movement: Srini’s TNCA says no to U-19 Tests

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, january 8

The old guard of the Indian cricket board (BCCI) and its affiliated state associations is not willing to give up power in a hurry. Last week the Supreme Court removed BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke, and made a very large number of officials ineligible to hold office. However, the officials are mulling their options, including the possibility of setting up a parallel cricket association in each state and, eventually, setting up a new cricket body in the country. 

Former and current officials, forgetting their past differences and enmities, met up in Bengaluru on Saturday. These included N Srinivasan, a former BCCI president. He headed BCCI when his son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings team principal, Gurunath Meiyappan, was implicated in the 2013 IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal. Srinivasan’s role in the scandal, and his desire to cling to BCCI’s top post, caused much trouble to BCCI and, thus, he should be a friendless figure among the officials. However, it’s not like that. The officials have closed ranks, and Srinivasan has fired the first shot in the no-cooperation movement the state associations are planning to launch.

No to matches

The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, which is headed by Srinivasan, has informed BCCI that it would not be able to host two under-19 Test matches between India and England in Chennai, scheduled to be played on February 13-16 and February 21-24.

“We regret to inform you that we are unable to host the matches in Chennai due to various domestic programmes scheduled during the period,” TNCA joint secretary RI Palani wrote in a letter to BCCI.

“Look, a lot of our TNCA league matches are yet to be completed as grounds are severely damaged due to Cyclone Vardah. Therefore we would need to complete the league in between Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare Trophy,” TNCA member RN Baba said, adding that it’s not a case of “show of defiance” by TNCA.

“It’s clear that these officials have ganged up against the Supreme Court order and are trying to disrupt the sport,” said a source close to the Lodha Committee. “It’s suicidal, it’s contempt of court.”

Hyderabad blues

In another development, the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has expressed its inability to stage the one-off Test match between India and Bangladesh, scheduled to be played on February 8-12. Reportedly, HCA has cited lack of funds as the reason.

The Australian team is scheduled to play the four Tests in India in February-March. Three of the venues of the fours Tests are in states from where BCCI’s top brass came — Pune (Shirke), Ranchi (Amitabh Choudhary, BCCI joint secretary) and Dharamsala (Thakur). 

These officials may have been removed or become ineligible to hold office, but they continue to hold enormous clout in their associations. It wouldn’t be surprising if they continue their non-cooperation movement and refuse to host Tests against Australia. 

Ineligible Srini continues to be TNCA head?

Curiously, TNCA wrote to BCCI on a letterhead that has N Srinivasan’s (in pic) name as its president and KS Viswanathan’s as secretary. This, according to a source close to the Lodha Committee, is contempt of court as both Srinivasan and Viswanathan are ineligible to hold office. It may be noted that the Supreme Court’s January 2 order had explicitly made most of the state association members ineligible to hold office due to age and tenure restrictions imposed on the office-bearers. Srinivasan, 72 years old, is disqualified to hold office in TNCA on at least two counts. He exceeds the age limit of 70 years imposed by the Supreme Court; also, he has served as TNCA’s president non-stop since 2002-03, exceeding the nine-year tenure, the maximum duration for which an official could hold office with a cooling-off period after every three year term.