BCCI will not protect any problem association: Ajay Shirke

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all tangled now while the Lodha committee and the Supreme Court have been holding a tight grip over anything and everything that the board does on the other hand, with audit reports confirming financial bluffs and wrongdoing by the state associations the BCCI probably is pinned from both sides. Secretary Ajay Shirke has made it quite clear that the board will not back any association that isn’t clean.

A Deloitte audit report unearthed unbelievable financial wrongdoings in the Hyderabad Cricket Association and it’s not the only association; the report of the Goa and Odisha associations too has made revelations that will have implications both for the state authorities as well as the BCCI in the larger picture.

“Hyderabad’s case is known, as also Goa, which didn’t pay their service tax. As for the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA), it’s not a case of funds embezzlement or fraud; but some discrepancies have been found in the Deloitte report about the OCA’s agreement with the local Olympic Association regarding the ownership of assets. Forensic audits couldn’t be done at the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA), Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JCA) and all North-East associates because their current accounts were not available,” Shirke told The Indian Express.

He maintained that the BCCI is in no way going to attempt to shield them. “Let me make it clear, the BCCI is not going to protect any problem association. Long before the SC order, the BCCI stopped their funding. J&K doesn’t get any fund except for whatever cricket matches they hold. They give us an account of the expenses – one special person is deputed in the BCCI who takes the expenses – and the amount is paid directly, with a proviso that the payment is made for the (cricket) purpose immediately.

Similar is the case with the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA). “Likewise, for the DDCA, all payments have been stopped as also the Goa Cricket Association (GCA). Goa didn’t pay the service tax; we directly paid that to the government and debited it from the state association’s account. We also removed Chetan Dessai (top three officials of the GCA, Dessai, Vinod Phadke and Akbar Mulla were arrested by the Economic Offences Cell of the Goa Police for alleged embezzlement of over Rs 3 crore) from the BCCI marketing committee.

“For Hyderabad we have been following the same system for the last five months. We take all utilisation statements from them. Regarding Orissa, it’s not a case of funds embezzlement, still we are keeping a close watch on them,” Shirke said.

The Secretary also mentioned that the board has always held a firm stand in case there is any misappropriation or misuse of the funds provided to them. “The BCCI has already taken action against these associations. For the rest, there’s no observation of any misappropriation, bad management, diversion or misuse of funds, or any kind of fraud.”

“The majority of the associations got Deloitte grading between 2.6 and 3, confirming stability. It’s for just three-four problem associations the cricket board is getting a bad name.” He said.