Angry cricket fan wants 'India' deleted from BCCI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has decided to hear a petition seeking to bar those who do not know even the ABC of the game from holding positions in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and also to remove the word 'India' from its title.

A bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice RV Raveendran and Justice JM Panchal on Tuesday decided to hear the petition on Jan 28 after the petitioner, Prince Lenin, a Lucknow resident, sought an urgent hearing of the plea filed recently.

The bench told the petitioner that his petition had already been listed for hearing Jan 28, when it would be taken up for hearing.

Lenin has also sought the court's direction to the BCCI to call off the Indian team's ongoing Australia tour, accusing the hosts of humiliating behaviour towards the visitors.

However, this part of the plea will be pointless as the fourth and final India-Australia test is scheduled to conclude Jan 28 itself.

The petitioner also wanted the court to debar the board from using the word 'India' because of its alleged failure in protecting the honour and dignity of the nation.

Though the petition did not say so explicitly, the reference was to the controversy that arose during the second Test at Sydney earlier this month that India lost, allegedly thanks to a series of poor umpiring decisions.

Also the International Cricket Council (ICC) had slapped a three-Test ban on Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh on charges of racist slurs against Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds though the ban was later suspended.