Vinod Rai disbands committee to investigate incident at Palam Ground

Recently, a Ranji Trophy match between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh saw the play being interrupted as a man drove his car into the pitch. Acting president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) CK Khanna decided to form a committee in order to investigate the security lapse.

However, Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai has disapproved the same sighting that the move would be pointless as it was an Air Force owned facility. In a mail to the BCCI, Rai pointed out the same and hence disbanded the committee.

The exercise of ‘collecting documents or reports to prepare details’ will be futile

Disapproving Khanna’s decision of forming a committee, Rai stated that there was no communication with the CoA on this issue by the acting president.

“I find that the acting President did not get himself briefed by the BCCI administration before deciding to constitute the said committee. There was no consultation with the COA either on this issue,” Rai wrote in the mail, a copy of which is in possession of PTI.

He further pointed out that since the ground was owned by Air Force, they wouldn’t allow any other body to undertake investigation.

“It needs to be appreciated that the Palam ground is an Air Force Ground. Security of armed forces premises are managed by the Armed Forces themselves and they will not allow BCCI or any other civilian agency to undertake investigation of either its premises or provide documents.”

Thus, he deemed the idea of having Prof. Ratnakar Shetty prepare details as pointless.

“Hence, the exercise of ‘collecting documents/reports to prepare the details’ by Prof. Shetty will be a futile exercise. It will thus unnecessarily cause inconvenience the members of the committee with no tangible benefit emerging from the exercise,” Rai wrote further.

The veteran administrator also stated that the explanation which the BCCI had demanded was already been provided by Prof Shetty.

“Incidentally, the action of seeking details and explanation of the Services Sports Control Board has already been done by the BCCI— Prof. Shetty has written to the Board. The state associations have also been cautioned about the need to maintain security on their premises when such matches are being played,” he was quoted as saying by the Times Of India.

“The Acting President would have been made aware of the actions taken if he had sought the details before constituting the committee,” wrote Rai. “In the light of the aforementioned the setting up a committee to investigate into the security lapse will be wholly unnecessary. The same need not be given effect to. The committee is disbanded,” he concluded.

I felt it was the right thing to do as the acting president

When CK Khanna, the acting president was asked to confront to the developments, he remarked that he thought it was the right thing to do.

“I formed the committee after discussion with some of the senior board members. I felt it was the right thing to do as the acting president. This is how BCCI has functioned over the years,” he told Times Of India.