Disqualified players were earlier approved by BCCI: Cricket Association of Puducherry

The Cricket Association of Puducherry is not having the greatest of initial days as a full member of the BCCI. After the board decided to disqualify 8 Puducherry players for flouting the eligibility criteria to participate in the Indian domestic season, The CAP officials defended themselves profusely.

It was earlier confirmed that for any player to represent Puducherry, they should be a part of a college or be employed in the city as of August 31, 2018. With relentless pressure coming from other sides, the cutoff date was drawn back to August 31st, 2017, which saw 8 players getting disqualified ahead of their Vijay Hazare clash against Uttarakhand.

“The CAP didn’t make a mistake here. The BCCI especially gave the cut off date (for the eligibility of players for Puducherry) of August 31, 2018, because CAP was admitted as a member of the Board only in August this year. The CAP thus asked all the eligible players (those who had joined a college, or gained employment in Puducherry since August 31, 2018) to come for the selection trials. All the players, who were eligible as per this special cutoff date of August 31, 2018, were thus picked to play for Puducherry, and this was approved by the BCCI,” said CAP acting secretary V Chandran.

The disqualified players will come back strong next season: CAP