Sunil Gavaskar turns down RCA request

BCCI's interim president, Sunil Gavaskar, justified the decision to leave Jaipur out of the IPL-7 schedule.

Sunil Gavaskar, President of BCCI’s IPL Affairs, arrives at BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Friday. (PTI)

A day after Jaipur was deprived from hosting matches in IPL-7, secretary of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA), KK Sharma, wrote to interim president Sunil Gavaskar, requesting him to reschedule. Sharma has demanded that the governing council allot a few Rajasthan Royals home matches to the Sawai Man Singh Stadium.

However, Gavaskar, following his maiden visit to the BCCI headquarters as IPL chief, insisted that the decision to leave Jaipur out of the schedule was justified. He said that the BCCI had sent letters earlier to all the state associations asking them about their availability, keeping in mind the security arrangements required to host IPL matches in the wake of the general elections.

According to the board, the RCA didn’t obtain a clearance or the no-objection certificate from the state government that was necessary for the BCCI to allot them matches. “We took the decision because there was that little bit of uncertainty about Jaipur. It’s not just Jaipur, as you see from the schedule, it is Chennai and Mohali too as they have also had issues. Therefore the endevour has been to make sure that the schedule has not been disrupted. Besides, I think the RCA matters are sub-judice and in view also of the fact that the Rajasthan Royals did indicate that they would be happy to play at Ahmedabad, the decision was taken,” Gavaskar explained.

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Sharma in his letter, though, claimed that the RCA had been surprised by the shift to Ahmedabad since it was taken without the IPL governing council asking the association.

“We have done all the necessary preparation to conduct these matches and sought permission from Govt. of Rajasthan for the same. The Govt. of Rajasthan has no objection for conduction of these matches in May, 2014 as Elections are to be held on 17th and 24th April, 2014,” Sharma said in his letter to BCCI.

Further stating, “We are surprised how governing council of IPL has shifted our home matches to Ahmadabad without even asking us. We shall suffer losses for the perpetration made as well as people of Rajasthan shall loose their right to see the home team perform in front of them.”

Gavaskar, though, stood by the governing council’s decision, saying that even Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab will have to deal with hosting some of their home games at non-regular venues.

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“Some of the regular venues like Dharamshala too for example have missed out while Chennai will get only a couple of matches because of the election situation. That is how it is, so it doesn’t rule these venues out from next season’s IPL but in the the current circumstances with the kind of uncertainty that was there, we had to take this stand. And not for any other reason,” said Gavaskar.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports too has written a letter to BCCI asking them to furnish some information. Without mentioning Jaipur, the ministry has asked why a non-regular venue has been selected for holding some matches of IPL 2014. The ministry also wanted to know what mechanisms the BCCI has put in place to ensure that unethical practices like betting and match-fixing do not take place during IPL-7 while inquiring about the license fees paid to the ICC for organizing the annual T20 extravaganza.

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