Modi favourite for RCA presidency

Lalit Modi is the favourite for the post of the Rajasthan Cricket Association president, the election for which was held on Thursday. The results, however, will only be known on January 6 with the ballots in possession of Supreme Court till then. The court is monitoring the elections and has appointed a former judge, Narendra Kasliwal, to oversee the process.

Whatever the outcome of the vote, and regardless of when the court reveals it, there is trouble ahead for the RCA. Modi, who has been banned for life by the BCCI, represents the Nagaur District Cricket Association. The BCCI made it clear in an email to RCA president CP Joshi last week that the association would lose all its privileges if they let Modi continue. A decision to this effect is likely to be finalised at the BCCI's next working committee meeting.

In another email to Joshi on Wednesday, minutes after Kasliwal cleared Modi's candidature, the BCCI sent a final warning to the RCA. "You have deliberately adopted a defiant tone. You will stand to lose your very right of membership of the BCCI, including the right to send players representing your state association for BCCI conducted tournaments."

Even though the BCCI has threatened to bar the RCA from all tournaments - including Ranji Trophy, various age-group and women's tournaments - since Modi is a district unit representative, the board, in consultation with its legal team, has decided not to take any step in a hurry. It will wait and watch if the Supreme Court allows Modi to take charge as the RCA president. If it does, then the BCCI will take up the issue in its working committee.

The Modi faction, meanwhile, was confident of sweeping the polls. If Modi is elected president, he has proposed his foe-turned-friend Sanjay Dixit and Bimal Soni as his principal advisors. Both Dixit and Soni have been vocal in their criticism of BCCI president N Srinivasan.