Crucial BCCI initiatives overshadowed by decision on playing Pakistan

The President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) AC Muthiah yesterday announced that India would not take part in any tournament involving Pakistan till the Indian Government took a firm stance on the matter. This includes tournaments like the Asia Cup, the ICC KnockOut Trophy and the World Cup. The announcement concerning playing Pakistan overshadowed many other important decisions taken at the meeting, including the issuing of a show-cause notice to some officials of the Goa Cricket Association (GCA) for allegedly claiming that the fake tickets for the India-Australia one-day match in Margao on April 6 were printed at the Board's behest.

"We understand that certain allegations have been made by GCA officials. They are absolutely false and we totally deny them," Muthiah said, adding that a show-cause notice would be issued to the association soon. He said the match-observer's report, which had been submitted to the Board, contained nothing leading to the printing of fake tickets. "Match Observer's function is restricted to the ground area. He is generally not concerned with what goes outside it," Muthiah said. He however said the Board was aware that genuine ticket holders having problems in getting entry into the stadium was a quite a regular phenomenon and steps were being taken to set things right. "We as responsible regulators want to ensure that it does not happen again in the future."

The meeting also decided to challenge the decision of Income Tax department to withdraw tax exemption to the Board saying it was unfair. Claiming that the Board was utilising money for purposes other than those for which the exemption was given, the IT department had slapped a notice of Rs 10 crore for the financial year 1997-98. "We have decided to challenge the move in court as it is arbitrary and unfair," Muthiah said, and added that the department did not even give the Board enough time to reply to its questionaire. "It raised 38 questions. We need time to reply to them."

The Board had also begun the exercise for the appointment of a media manager for which the interviews will be held soon. "There are four or five short-listed candidates for the post and we wil be interviewing them soon," Muthiah said, adding none of them were from the media.

Bids for sponsorship of the Indian cricket team were opened today at the meeting but a final decision was yet to be taken. There were four companies in the fray including Hero Honda and Sporting Frontiers and Muthiah said if the bids "fall short of what we want we may invite fresh bids." The need for new sponsors arose after ITC withdrew its long association with Indian cricket following Government directive banning cigarrette manufacturing firms from advertising in sports.

The meeting approved the budgets for India's tour of Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. While Rs 2.04 crores were approved for Zimbabwe tour starting next month, Rs 4.47 crores were earmarked for the tour of Sri Lanka, tentatively starting on July 16.

On the affilitations to the four state associations of Chatisgarh, Uttaranchal, Pondicherry and Jharkhand, Muthiah said the issue will be dealt with by the General Body as the working committee was not empowered to take a decision in this regard.

He also announced the setting up of five zonal academies, on the lines of National Cricket Academy, which will start functioning from May 1. "In addition, if the state associations want to start academies for Under-14 and Under-16 players, they are free to do so provided they follow the Board's guidelines in this regard. However the Board would not provide any subsidies to these academies," he said.