Rajkot Test in danger as BCCI moves to Supreme Court requesting funds for series execution
Last week, Sportskeeda had reported that the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) had requested the England Cricket Board (ECB) to reimburse their expenditure during the upcoming long India tour.
However, our sources now indicate that the monetary problem has put the execution of the series in jeopardy, with the BCCI unable to cough up funds even for the first Test.
A senior BCCI official said, “The board is not adequately equipped to even host the first Test. We have already had a meeting with the Lodha panel i.e. the Supreme Court to release funds to the Saurashtra Cricket Association for the Test. However, we were told that we were in contempt of the rules set in place. We obviously stood our ground as there is no way we can go ahead with the match. The court will further hear proceedings on Tuesday at 2 pm, but it looks highly unlikely that the Court will agree with our demands.”
Also Read: Anil Kumble instrumental to BCCI adopting DRS: ICC GM
Both teams are currently practising at the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) stadium, with the match scheduled to begin tomorrow on November 9. Our source added, “We have requested a 10% release of our funds so that we can allocate an adequate amount of funds to each state association. Apart from just the series, we have signed several other monetary contracts which need to be paid off.”
“A new insurance policy and most importantly the new DRS system, we cannot go ahead with the payment of these until the funds are released. The world looks up to us to lead cricketing innovation, but blocking funds which will be used to uplift the state of Indian cricket doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”
Yesterday BCCI Secretary Ajay Shirke confirmed that the England camp has agreed to fund their side of the series till the matter is resolved. He said, “Let’s not mince words here, the series is in definite jeopardy, even though England have agreed to reimburse their travel expenditure.”
“The contracts you’re talking about cannot be executed as we will be held in contempt of court if we begin any talks without prior permission of the Lodha Panel. The Panel had promised us that there will be an assigned auditor, who will clear at least a partial amount of these payments, but that is yet to happen.”
If the Supreme Court overrules the funding request today, we might just see an announcement from the BCCI about the series termination in a couple of days time.