BCCI officials miss the final presentation ceremony of the Ranji Trophy

In what was historic Ranji Trophy final, Vidarbha were crowned the champions of the elite tournament for the first time ever. The team from the eastern part of Maharashtra put up a brilliant show against seven-time champions Delhi at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore on Monday.

Rajneesh Gurbani was named the man-of-the-match as he ended with astounding figures of 6/59 and 2/92 in the two innings respectively. During the first innings, the 24-year-old took a hat-trick to become only the second cricketer ever to do so in the final of Ranji Trophy.

Absence of board present CK Khanna

However, the victorious side did not get to celebrate the way they would have liked to at the stadium after the match. None of the senior officials of the Board of Control for India (BCCI) were present to give away the trophy to the winning side.

As per tradition, the trophy is handed over to the winning team’s captain by only a senior official, which was not the case earlier today. Faiz Fazal was handed over the trophy by former BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale and MPCA secretary Milind Kanmadikar, both of whom do not hold senior positions in the board.

Poor planning

As per reports, it was the failure to execute a plan that led to this embarrassment for the world’s richest cricket board. The board’s acting president, C. K. Khanna, was supposed to reach Indore late on Monday night to be on time for the award ceremony on Tuesday, but the match finished a day early. Aware that Ranji Trophy games do not always take all four (and five in case of semi-final or final) days to finish, the official could have avoided taking a risk and booked the tickets for the third or fourth day of play.

“Khanna ji has left from Delhi but he won’t be able to reach the ground. He must be in the flight now,” former BCCI secretary Anant Wageesh Kanmadikar told Sportstar.