Assam, Bengal challenge COA authority in SC

Cricket Association of Bengal president Sourav Ganguly

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)-Lodha impasse has reached the next level. Following the footsteps of BCCI joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary, the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) and Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) yesterday moved the Supreme Court (SC) challenging that the Committee of Administrators (COA) has acted beyond the scope and authority.

The COA on February 23 wrote to all state associations to submit a compliance report adhering to all Lodha diktats by March 1. Various state associations on Monday appealed to the COA to extend the deadline to March 27. But the ACA and CAB decided to go one step further and submit an impediment petition and a review petition in the SC against the COA's order to the state bodies.

The petition states that COA's actions are in violation of the fundamental rights under the Articles 19 (1)(c) and (19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India as well as contrary to the decision of the apex court on July 18, 2016. Since yesterday was the deadline set by the COA for state associations to submit the compliance report, the ACA and CAB decided to challenge their authority in the apex court.

Talking to mid-day over phone from Guwahati, vice-president of ACA, Debajit Saikia said: "There are a lot of contradictions in the original order of the SC and what has been communicated to the state associations by the COA. We need clarification on many issues which we have pointed out in our petitions."

In Kolkata, the decision was taken after state association's working committee meeting chaired by former India captain Sourav Ganguly.

"It's the same rule affecting all 29 associations," CAB president Ganguly said.