CHENNAI: The controversy surrounding Team Puducherry’s decision to include outstation players and BCCI finding eight of them ineligible before withdrawing the ‘special status’ given to the Union Territory refuses to die. On Friday, Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) wrote to Saba Karim, BCCI’s general manager of cricket operations and the Committee of Administrators (CoA) asking why the points from Puducherry’s first match should be not awarded to Manipur, since the former won the match by fielding players who failed to meet the selection criteria. Saurashtra doesn’t seem to be the only one which has questioned the special status given to Team Puducherry.
As per BCCI regulations, players picked for a tournament should be registered at least 48 hours (24 hours for sudden call-ups in case of emergencies) before the start. Given that the Cricket Association of Pondicherry (CAP) named seven players only on Thursday and two of them played against Uttarakhand on Friday, other associations are asking why this rule was not applied to them. They are also wondering whether the credentials of the second set of players called up later were verified by BCCI. One of the new players, AS Govindaraajan who opened the innings against Uttarakhand, is registered with Tamil Nadu Cricket Association under first division team Globe Trotters.
Express understands his residential address falls under the jurisdiction of Tamil Nadu, not in Puducherry as it should be. Questions have also been raised about captain D Rohit, who is registered under TNCA and is yet to receive no objection certificate. With regards to the ‘exemption’ or ‘special status’, who gave the permission and whether there was an official communication, remains unclear. In the letter to BCCI, a copy of which is with this newspaper, SCA joint secretary Madhukar Worah has also raised questions over this. “We fail to understand on what basis have they been given permission to include more outstation players than permitted and that too without checking all the proofs and criteria.
We strongly believe that all rules and regulations of BCCI’s domestic tournaments should be the same for all participating teams. Such deviation in rules and regulations for a particular team has never happened in the history of BCCI.” Though a CAP official said on Thursday they received official word from the BCCI with regards to a relaxation in rules, Worah asks why other members were not kept in the loop. “If Puducherry team does not have enough local players, they should not participate.
We are also surprised that none of the participating associations/ teams have been informed about allowing Puducherry team to have more outstation players than permitted. In this scenario, we feel that the matches where Puducherry team participated with outstation players more than permitted should be treated as null and void.” venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com