KSCA #BCCI #ICC #CCB #SIT

SouravGanguly

AjayShah

Political Interference

AvoidableIgnominy

By Joseph hoover

According to reports, a couple of office-bearers have been running from pillar to post, prostrating at the feet of politicians to save themselves from the possibility of being arrested by the Central Crime Branch.

In their desperation to save themselves from the ignominy of being arrested for their alleged involvement in the KPL match-fixing scandal, they have exposed themselves to the elements of doubt and guilt.

If they had conviction about their innocence, they wouldn’t have to plead for mercy. They could have steadfastly held their head up high and discarded any lingering doubts about their unholy alliance with corrupt cricketers and franchise owners .

They have sought the help of political stalwarts from the BJP, which came to power with the pledge to incinerate the corrupt, and Congress. But this isn’t going to bail anyone out of trouble.

KSCA secretary Santosh Menon’s house was raided a fortnight ago by the CCB. The CCB had availed a search warrant from the court.

It is common knowledge that no government department/ agency would raid someone’s house without evidence. No judge would issue a search warrant without clinching/corroborative evidence.

It is public knowledge that a very senior IPS officer had saved Santosh Menon from being arrested.

Menon has been asked to report to the CCB headquarters for frequent interrogation.

KSCA, Karnataka cricket and Santosh Menon could have been saved this embarrassment had the KPL governing council, chaired by Vinay Mruthunjaya, had acted on the match-fixing complaints of Sreenath Arvind and Balchander Akhil in 2017. They had briefed the then office-bearers about matches being fixed. But KSCA threw caution to the wind.

The reluctance to take action is now hurting KSCA’s reputation, Karnataka cricket and genuine cricketers.

Instead of threatening others with defamation suits, the present managing committee would do well to reprimand office-bearers who have heaped embarrassment on what was once the best administered cricket association in India.

The least the managing committee could do is to ask those who are being investigated to stay away from the affairs of the cricket association, until they are given a clean chit by the Special Investigation Team, put together by Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao to cleanse Karnataka cricket.