Mumbai: Chhattisgarh High Court issued notice to Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Chhattisgarh state cricket association over a PIL alleging bias in the selection process of Chhattisgarh Ranji team.
A division bench of justices Pritinkar Diwaker and Chandra Bhushan Bajpai issued notices to BCCI and state cricket association Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh (CSCS) yesterday seeking their replies, while addressing to the PIL filed by former cricketer R Vijay Naidu (a resident of Raipur), petitioner’s lawyer Saurabh Dangi said.
“The petitioner has alleged bias in the selection of Chhattisgarh state team which will make its Ranji Trophy debut in this season” he said. The petition contented that rules of selection and other activities related to Ranji trophy team are not available on the website of CSCS unlike other state team’s websites.
Despite the ruling of Supreme Court in the case of BCCI vs Bihar Cricket Association which states that transparency should not be compromised at any level, Chhattisgarh chose to ignore it, petitioner’s lawyer alleged.
The petitioner further alleged that three players of Chhattisgarh’s currently selected team namely Rishabh Tiwari, Avinash Dhariwal and Ashutosh Singh, were included in the team without actually taking part in the selection trials, he said.
Besides, Naidu has alleged that the selection process is unfair due to favouritism and nepotism, his lawyer alleged.
The High court has postponed the hearing on this matter till October 18th.
Chhattisgarh was an associate member of BCCI for a long time. In February 2016, BCCI granted full membership to Chhattisgarh, making it the 28th affiliated unit of the board to take part in Ranji trophy.