BCCI MAY NOT ADD ANY NEW TEAMS FOR 2016-17 INDIAN DOMESTIC CRICKET TOURNAMENTS

Top official cites time, venue & logistics for defying Lodha Panel recommendation

By QAISER MOHAMMAD ALI, Outlookindia.com

NEW DELHI -- The new, 2016-17 domestic cricket season is just nine days away and the BCCI is resisting the Supreme Court/Lodha Committee recommendations that seek inclusion of all the states and union territories in every national tournament.

Despite the recommendations having the Supreme Court seal, the BCCI would most likely stick to the previous season’s format for the various tournaments, it is gathered. That would mean non-inclusion of new eight state teams that till now weren’t allowed to compete in Ranji Trophy, the premier men’s championship, and six Union Territories.

The states that are not included in Ranji Trophy are Bihar, the third most populous state of India whose full membership was snatched away by the BCCI in 2001, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.

The Lodha Committee has recommended that there should be a combined team of the six Union Territories from the upcoming season while the seventh UT, Delhi, already competes in all tournaments. The BCCI is opposing both recommendations.

The BCCI recently announced that the 2016-17 season would start on August 23, with the Duleep Trophy being played in Greater Noida. But the fixtures of the other tournaments, including Ranji Trophy, have still not been announced.

A top BCCI official would only say that the fixtures would be announced “soon” while indicating that the Board would stick to the old format for the tournaments for the 2016-17 domestic season.

A source, however, said that the Ranji Trophy would begin from October 6, with the newly-promoted full member Chhattisgarh being the 28th competing team. There will be a total of 124 matches, and all of them will be on 40 ‘neutral’ venues, said the source.

“The Supreme Court judgement has still not concluded, meaning it has not yet been fully implemented as we are seeking to exploit remedies in the form of a review petition and, if that fails, the curative petition. The review petition will be filed soon. While we are implementing some of the recommended reforms, we won’t be able to include nine new teams [eight state teams and a combined Union Territories’ team] in the 2016-17 season,” the BCCI official told Outlook.

“So far Bihar is concerned, the state is a BCCI Associate Member and Associate Members don’t compete in Ranji Trophy. And for the UTs, what value the combined team of Union Territories will have and what name will you give to it?” the official argued.

Asked if the Lodha Committee will have to approve the fixtures before they are released, he rather sarcastically said: “They can do anything.”

While listing the BCCI’s “practical difficulties” in including additional teams, the official cited time, venue and logistical constraints, especially when there is hardly any time left for the season to start.

“Nine additional teams in each of the four men’s tournaments – Ranji Trophy, under-23, under-19 and under-16 – would mean actually 36 new teams. Similarly, nine women’s teams in two categories, senior and junior, would mean 18 teams. That works out to a total of 54 additional teams,” he explained. “How can you add so many teams and so many matches when the time is so short. Plus, there are other problems like venues and travel that would be there.”

But the Lodha Committee would have none of it. “They [BCCI] will have to include the nine new teams. The Supreme Court judgement [in the 2013 IPL betting-fixing case] came on July 18. They have to add them, no doubt,” a source close to the Lodha Committee told Outlook.

“The BCCI doesn’t have to make those teams; the respective associations have to do that. If the BCCI is unable to create those teams, and include them in their round-robin format, clearly [administrators] they should resign, if such a small thing can't be done,” he said.

“The first question you should ask them [BCCI] is: Have they taken a policy decision to ensure that each state will have one team separately, especially when both the Supreme Court judgement and the Lodha Committee have said that they can have a single north-east team?” he wondered.

The Lodha Committee on August 9 issued to the BCCI a set of timelines for implementation of various reforms. The two important deadlines given are September 30 and October 15. There are indications that one more timeline would be issued, probably by end-September.

In its last month's judgement, the Supreme Court had given the BCCI up to six months to implement all approved recommendations of the Lodha Committee.