BCCI revokes allowance for Puducherry on talent recruitment after other bodies oppose

They were looking forward to their debut in domestic cricket with a lot of energy but Puducherry received a blow when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) revoked a special allowance to the new team which is related to the ‘local’ players. The cricket board had earlier relaxed the rules for the Union Territory (UT) keeping in mind the problems it faced in recruiting ‘local’ players but now, it has backtracked.

According to the BCCI, any player who possesses a birth certificate from a particular state or works in an organisation within the jurisdiction of that state or studies in a recognised institute in that state since August 2017, is eligible as a local player. But the BCCI turned lenient for Puducherry, which was inducted as an associate member of the board in August this year.

Puducherry board withdraws eight players

“Initially, the Board told us that we could only include players who are in the state since 2017. But that was impossible for us as we had just been recognised by the BCCI. We requested the Board to allow us players who have been residing here since August 2018. They agreed,” a senior official at the Cricket Association of Puducherry (CAP) was quoted by Sportstar as saying on Thursday.

Former India wicketkeeper Saba Karim, BCCI’s Cricket Operations GM, conceded that the board had relaxed the rule for the Puducherry Cricket Association after it requested so but backtracked after other state bodies opposed the move.

“The decision was that for Puducherry, those players will qualify as locals if they show some proof of residence or employment or education as on August 2018, even if you are not born in Puducherry. Now, that decision has been revoked,” Karim was quoted as saying. He, however, did not find anything wrong with Puducherry’s cricket association.

Puducherry officials admitted of having received the BCCI’s order and agreed to withdraw eight players in the form of ST Xavier, Nikhilesh Surendran, Abdul Safar VS, Iqlas N, Yash Jadhav, Ashith Rajiv Sagar Trivedi and Shashank Singh. They also sent eight local players to join the team in Baroda.

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