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BCCI chief Thakur demands clarity, call on NZ series today
NEW DELHI: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur said a final call on the rest of the New Zealand tour will be taken on Wednesday.
NEW DELHI: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur said a final call on the rest of the New Zealand tour will be taken on Wednesday.
“We need some clarity first,” Thakur told HT on Tuesday. “We need to know where we can spend our money and where we cannot. If we are stopped from paying state associations for hosting matches then cricket can’t go on. We need clarity and better communication from the Lodha committee on this,” he said.
“The BCCI doesn’t take money from the government. It is very disappointing that our accounts were frozen. This is a serious threat to our autonomy,” Thakur said. “I am not even sure whether the Lodha committee is actually empowered to freeze our accounts. And if the Lodha committee has not stopped money being paid to the state associations, then we need to find out under whose orders the banks stopped payments.”
Thakur said the freezing of funds can be seen as government interference and the International Cricket Council can take note of it. Like all other world sports, in cricket too there are provisions to suspend affiliated units for government interference. However, the ICC has not reacted to the development in South Africa where, on a government directive, there is racial quota in team selection.
The 41-year-old Thakur, who is also a BJP MP, said it was extremely shameful to see the board being questioned for raising the salaries of players despite their impressive performances.
“On one hand, our Test team climbs to the number one spot in rankings while on the other hand if we try to increase the fees of the players from 7 lakh to 15 lakh then such things become questionable.
“When we talk about allotting money to state associations to arrange matches then they restrain us from doing so. Now it is up to the state associations whether they will be able to conduct matches or not.
“The BCCI has done exemplary work in the last few years. We are now top three in the world in all formats of the game. Our domestic tournaments are the biggest in the world. Our U-19 team is also doing well. The members are pained at the treatment meted out to them,” he said.
“There is too much interference at the moment.”
