The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday formed an ad-hoc committee for cricket administration in Bihar and Uttarakhand.
The decision will pave the way for budding cricketers, who will now get a chance to play for their respective state teams. The five-member committee for Uttarakhand will be chaired by MP Pandove and will also have Vishal Marwaha (secretary, Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association), Subir Ganguly (joint secretary, Cricket Association of Bengal), Vinod Shah (vice-president, Maharashtra Cricket Association), KVP Rao (manager - game development, BCCI).
Similarly, another panel formed to look after cricket affairs in Bihar will be spearheaded by its chairman Niranjan Shah and will also include Vinod Phadke (secretary, Goa Cricket Association), Sourav Dasgupta (secretary, Tripura Cricket Association), Bharat Zaveri (executive member, Gujarat Cricket Association) and Ratnakar Shetty (general manager - game development, BCCI).
The BCCI is currently embroiled in a legal tangle with the Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) over a Rs10 lakh payment as remuneration to justice Dharam Pal Sinha, who has agreed to conduct the BCA elections after a gap of seven years.
Cricket in Bihar has been in shambles due to the absence of a representative body with no first-class matches staged in the state for several years.
The cricket politics in Uttarakhand reached its new heights in the last 15 years after the state was bifurcated from Uttar Pradesh in November 2009. Five cricket associations in the state have been fighting over affiliation from the central board. In fact, three of the associations had joined hands in January this year to claim the affiliation, but they fail to impress BCCI officials.
Speaking on the development, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said: "Due to infighting among different associations present in these states, aspiring cricketers of these states have to suffer for no fault of theirs. To ensure cricket grows in these states, the BCCI has decided to form an ad-hoc committee for these states, which will function, till the affiliation issues of these states are resolved."
{{/usCountry}}Speaking on the development, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said: "Due to infighting among different associations present in these states, aspiring cricketers of these states have to suffer for no fault of theirs. To ensure cricket grows in these states, the BCCI has decided to form an ad-hoc committee for these states, which will function, till the affiliation issues of these states are resolved."
{{/usCountry}}(With inputs from Agencies)