Karnataka cricket association to boycott Pataudi Memorial Lecture, BCCI Awards

KSCA launched a scathing attack against the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators for overstepping their brief.

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Amitabh Choudhary has already filed an interim application before the Supreme Court.

The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), the host body for the BCCI Annual Awards Ceremony and the fifth Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi Memorial Lecture on March 8, has decided to boycott the event. In a letter to the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, the KSCA has launched a scathing attack against the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) for “overstepping” their brief.

“The fact that the Committee of Administrators who have blatantly overstepped their roles far overreaching the directions of the Supreme Court do not understand the very meaning of an annual awards function pertaining to cricket and an invitation to the same,” KSCA president and secretary Sanjay Desai and Sudhakar Rao wrote to Johri.

The association railed at the snub to the “ineligible” office bearers and stated: “We call upon your-self (Johri) to please inform the Committee of Administrators that the KSCA will not accept such a humiliation and as a mark of protest, will boycott the said function though cricket and cricketers are dear to our heart.”

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This paper has already reported that how the BCCI Annual Awards ceremony is off-limits for the “ineligible” BCCI officials as per the COA directives, and also, upon reconsideration the Committee might allow the likes of Anurag Thakur, Ajay Shirke, Amitabh Choudhary and Anirudh Chaudhry to attend the function.

And a huge section of the BCCI members have found the last paragraph of the invitation letter “rude” and “undiplomatic”. The invitation clearly mentioned that “only those office bearers who are qualified as per the Supreme Court orders are expected to attend the function”.

The KSCA has also raised questions over N Ram’s presence in the committee that picked the award winners. “Also, a point to note is the irony that Mr N Ram whom we all respect immensely is way above the above the age of seventy years was nominated to the Committee which selected the award winners for this function by the Committee of Administrators,” the letter said.

BCCI joint-secretary Amitabh Choudhary and a few other state associations have already filed an interim application before the Supreme Court, alleging that the conduct of the COA is contrary to the order passed by the court. The matter will be heard on Monday. The apex court in its January 30 order directed the COA to supervise the BCCI functioning as it announced the appointment of the independent administrators to implement the Lodha reforms.

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