Former Indian captain Anil Kumble and speedster Javagal Srinath on Sunday staged a walkout from the Annual General Body Meeting of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) alleging misuse of funds by the current set-up.
Kumble, who was elected KSCA president in 2010 for a three-year period, has accused the state body of misusing the funds and instead of utilising them on cricket, Rupees 100 crore is being plannned to be spent on clubhouses.
“You certainly need to be member friendly. The three years that we were hear, the only thing that we heard was that we were not member-friendly. That was ridiculous. You are here for a case in the association for the development of cricket. You need to be cricket firendly along with member-friendly. We were the ones who established those clubhouses here,” an angry Kumble told the media.
"There was a fire accident about seven years ago and nothing was done. And now to suggest that those three years were dismal to Karnataka cricket association and it’s all one point agenda and one person conducting the show. The president is just sitting there and not even chairing the meeting, which is disappointing," Kumble said without naming former Test player Brijesh Patel.
India’s highest wicket-taker in Tests, Kumble (619 scalps in 132 matches) tried to turn administrator with the role of KSCA president with India teammates Venkatesh Prasad (vice-president) and Javagal Srinath (Secretary) to assist him.
The former leg-spinner also took a dig at present president Ashok Anand and secretary Patel. “Everybody else other than the chair says what he has to say that is disappointing. Obviously its all orchestrated. Obviously, they have taken time to have these kind of meetings.”
"When you have 129 members sitting actually being a part of sub-committees which don’t even meet and don’t even sit down and discuss issues. There all a part of that and we are ten of us. Of course, a minority, but I will stand up for the right things and I will certainly voice my views," he said.
Srinath, who played for India between 1991 and 2002, stood firm with his former teammate while staging the walkout. The former pace spearhead also said that the present set up is deviating from what should be their goal.
"We have to get it into the heart and it has to be cricket all the way. We are looking for the next 20 years of KSCA. We still play 41% in Bangalore and Mysore on turf wickets. We need turf wickets throughout Karnataka. Sunil Joshi came from Gadag-Betageri, I came from Mysore, we hardly had any infrastructure. So you provide infrastructure throughout Karnataka. Atleast another 25 districts need such infrastructure," said Srinath.
Srinath, who also tried to champion the cause of cricket administration in his state of Karnataka alongwith Kumble for the three-year tenure between 2010-13, is still hoping to see things fall in place.
"Once you do this infrastructure then you can think of something else. The cost for putting this infrastructure throughout Karnatka will be heavy so your spending should be on cricket. Now you come and say that this is clubhouse and you want an OK for the clubhouse, which we are not.
"Clubhouse has all these things. They should say we are looking at cricket, make 100% turf wickets in Karnataka. That’s how kids come up. That’s how you integrate education into sport," said Srinath.
“The point is we tried everything in the last three years. There was no reason for us to come, when we saw cricket suffering we came.
"And we don’t want this administration job. We are still not aiming for all these things. But we came forward and put in a genuine efoort in the last three years. All we want is to promote cricket. That’s all we want to say," he added.
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