A quarterfinal match of the inter-college (junior) cricket tournament to be held at the Cross Maidan on Thursday was postponed at the time of the toss, despite the presence of both teams.
HR College of Commerce and Economics and Rizvi College of Arts, Science and Commerce were scheduled were set for the match at the Karnataka Sporting Association wicket. As both captains exchanged team lists, RM Suradkar, the joint secretary of the Junior College Sports Association, informed the two teams that the match had been called off and would be played at a later date. The reason: three Rizvi players were part of the Mumbai under-17 squad currently playing in Bangalore and the college had earlier sought postponement of this match.
The interesting thing to note here is that while Rizvi had applied for the postponement of the match, they had assembled to play, as no decision on their plea was forthcoming.
Said Sujeet Nayak, HR Junior College captain: “I had gone for the toss and was chatting with the umpires, when Suradkar suddenly came and told us that the match had been postponed. I was shocked because we had not been informed of this earlier. I went and filed a complaint with the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).”
{{/usCountry}}Said Sujeet Nayak, HR Junior College captain: “I had gone for the toss and was chatting with the umpires, when Suradkar suddenly came and told us that the match had been postponed. I was shocked because we had not been informed of this earlier. I went and filed a complaint with the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).”
{{/usCountry}}“Rizvi had filed such an application, but we spoke to some of the Rizvi players on Wednesday (20th December) and they said they would. Also, the match cannot be postponed without the consent of the rival team, and we are supposed to be intimated 24 hours in advance. None of this happened,” a HR College official said.
Said Rizvi coach Raju Pathak: “Our appeal was rejected by the MCA and the tournament organisers because that was a first round match. The organisers postponed this match because it was the quarterfinal and important players were not present.”
On its part, the MCA said postponement of the match was against rules. “They are supposed to consult the parent body before taking such decisions. Also both the teams have to give their consent for postponing a match,” said Vinod Deshpande, secretary, tournament sub-committee, MCA.
“We had rejected their appeal to postpone a one-day match on the same grounds earlier. If matches are postponed for such reasons, then the whole tournament schedule gets affected and there are boys who are appearing for their HSC exams. We have to keep that in mind as well.” Suradkar refused to comment when the Hindustan Times contacted him.
E-mail: rachna.shetty@hindustantimes.com