da realbet： The Board working committee’s momentous decision in New Delhi onTuesday to throw down the gauntlet before the Government vis-a-vis theprickly issue of playing Pakistan was not on the listed agenda of themeeting, taking many by surprise
da leao： Sankhya Krishnan25-Apr-2001The Board working committee’s momentous decision in New Delhi onTuesday to throw down the gauntlet before the Government vis-a-vis theprickly issue of playing Pakistan was not on the listed agenda of themeeting, taking many by surprise. But there were several other moremundane issues which were also disposed of in the same surroundings.Officials of the Goa Cricket Association, already being harassed bypolice over their involvement in a bogus ticket racket during theIndia-Australia one-dayer on April 6, face the prospect of beingslapped with a show cause notice for trying to wriggle out of theirpredicament by pointing the finger at the Board. “We understand thatcertain allegations have been made by GCA officials. They areabsolutely false and we totally deny them” said Muthiah. He dampenedspeculation that the report of match observer KP Kajaria, which hasalready been submitted to the Board, would contain any bombshells.”The match observer’s function is restricted to the ground area. He isgenerally not concerned with what goes outside it” said Muthiah in acop out that effectively relieved the Board of any responsibilty forthe incident. Muthiah however suggested that the Board was notentirely unaware about the travails of genuine ticket holders ingaining unfettered access to stadia and disclosed that they wereanxious to prevent a recurrence. “We as responsible regulators want toensure that it does not happen again in the future.” he assured.Sponsorship bids for the Indian cricket team in advance of nextmonths’s tour of Zimbabwe were also opened at the meeting although noimmediate decision is likely. “If the bids fall short of what we wantwe may invite fresh ones” indicated Muthiah. Four companies are in thehunt including Hero Honda and Sporting Frontiers of which Australianskipper Steve Waugh is non-executive director. Sporting Frontiers hasalready won the rights to sell in-stadia advertising in 14 of India’sinternational grounds. The quest for a new sponsor began in rightearnest after ITC was forced to relinquish their position just beforethe Australian series by a Government initiative to ban tobacco firmsfrom marketing their products in sporting arenas.The meeting also finalised the budgets for India’s next twointernational tours, of Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. An amount of Rs 2.04crores was approved for the Zimbabwe tour – which kicks off with awarm-up fixture on May 28 – while a slightly weightier sum of Rs 4.47crores is earmarked for the tour of Sri Lanka, scheduled to begin onJuly 16.A verdict on the aspirations of five more local associationsJharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Uttaranchal, Pondicherry and Chandigarh now inthe queue for BCCI membership has been deferred. Muthiah said theworking committee is not authorised to take a decision in thisconnection and left the issue to be handled by the General Body.Affiliation to the Board however does not necessarily entail RanjiTrophy status. As a first step, the Board is likely to empower theassociations to participate in junior tournaments like the Under-19level Cooch Behar Trophy as Sikkim is doing at the moment.The Board has also taken umbrage at the Income Tax department’sdecision to withdraw tax exemption to them. The IT department hadslapped a notice of Rs 10 crore for the 1997-98 financial year ,suggesting that the Board was utilising money for purposes other thanthose for which the exemption was given. “We have decided to challengethe move in court as it is arbitrary and unfair,” Muthiah said, addingthat the Board required further time to respond to the ITquestionnaire. “It raised 38 questions. We need time to reply tothem.”Having woken up to the needs of employing a media manager in anexercise to improve their unflattering public relations image, theBoard is in the process of homing in on a suitable candidate. “Thereare four or five short-listed candidates for the post and we will beinterviewing them soon,” Muthiah said, adding none of them were fromthe media.Muthiah also confirmed that the five zonal academies sanctioned by theBoard at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Kanpur on the lines ofthe National Cricket Academy will start functioning from May 1.However he rebutted an earlier statement from Chairman of the NCACommittee Raj Singh Dungarpur that the Board would provide a 50%subsidy to four more zonal academies mooted at the Under-14 andUnder-16 levels. “In addition, if state associations want to startacademies for Under-14 and Under-16 players, they are free to do soprovided they follow the Board’s guidelines in this regard. Howeverthe Board would not provide any subsidies to these academies,” hedeclared.Meanwhile the BCCI watchdog K Madhavan, serving in the capacity ofanticorruption commissioner, is coming closer to the finish line inhis laborious attempt to unravel the enigmatic betting and matchfixing nexus dogging Indian cricket. Muthiah confided with the pressthat Madhavan’s investigations will be complete as soon as he is ableto establish contact with some of the current Indian players who couldnot be reached earlier because of their commitments with the nationalteam. “Now that the Australia series is over, Madhavan will completehis inquiry and submit the report soon,” Muthiah assured.
