BCCI-ICL Standoff Reaches Assam

Bud Cricket Club refuses to play:

Guwahati, Dec. 19: The face-off between the BCCI and ICL on Wednesday reached Assam, disrupting a premier invitational meet in Guwahati with one of the teams, Bud Cricket Club, pulling out of the semifinal of the 16th Ankurjyoti Challenge Cricket Championship fearing disciplinary action by the Assam Cricket Association.

Bud decided not to play against Shantipur AC, which they said was considering fielding five ICL players.

To top it, Sunil Baruah, the president of the organising club Ankurjyoti, who is also the BCCI curator, resigned from his club. The curator, who was against allowing any ICL player to play, resigned citing differences with other club members.

ACA secretary Bikash Baruah had on Tuesday night stated in a press release that no ICL player was entitled to participate in any tournament conducted by any district association or its affiliated clubs. The restriction was imposed by BCCI, he added.

All the three clubs -- Ankurjyoti, Bud and Shantipur -- are affiliated to the Guwahati Sports Association, which is affiliated to the ACA. However, the tournament, though not recognised by the ACA, is quite popular among the players and several state-level players from both the sides would have squared off against each other in today's match.

Both Bikash Baruah and Sunil Baruah said they have received calls from BCCI functionaries.

Tomorrow's final between Shantipur and Gauhati Town Club, too, is under a cloud, given today's development.

Ankurjyoti general secretary Tridip Medhi described the development as unfortunate and said the Shantipur team did not contain the names of any ICL players.

"Since it is an open meet, everybody is allowed to play. We have nothing to do with the ICL or IPL? We are here for the love of cricket. Only the players will suffer," he said.

Mukut Kalita of Bud, however, said the five ICL players -- Syed Zakaria Zuffri, Preetam Das, Parvez Aziz, Sujoy Tarafdar and Abu Naschim -- were in the Shantipur team.

"We were keen to play. It would have been a good game but we got feelers from the ACA not to play. They (ICL) players are at least financially settled. But how can the players in our team take the risk?" he asked.

Posted On: The Telegraph

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