BCCI cracks the whip on JKCA

For once, the BCCI has cracked the whip on one of its associations. Amid the hullabaloo surrounding Lalit Modi’s expulsion at the board’s special general body meeting (SGM) in Chennai on Wednesday, one major fact went unreported.

Curiously enough, nobody represented the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) at the all-important conclave convened to impose a life ban on the former IPL chairman. Neither president Farooq Abdullah nor chairman Aslam Goni was present at the meeting. And it is learnt that neither will attend Sunday’s annual general body meeting (AGM).

The reason? The JKCA is facing charges of diverting Rs 50 crore, received from the BCCI as subsidy, to three different bank accounts opened in the name of the association by its officials. The muck, which surfaced some time last year, prompted the state police to file an FIR but the BCCI has only just woken up. It is also learnt that the association has yet to furnish its books.

And that prompted the top brass of the board to act. The association has been categorically ordered not to send its envoy to any BCCI meeting till the mess is sorted out.

“All the other 29 associations were represented at Wednesday’s SGM in Chennai. Everyone knows why the JKCA representative was absent. And I doubt if anyone from the association will attend Sunday’s AGM,” an official said. When contacted, Goni said, “Our president was busy with some work in New Delhi and I was held up in Jammu.” When asked if he or Abdullah would attend Sunday’s AGM, he said, “Let’s see.”