CAL in ‘deep crisis’ as bank freezes account; no relief in sight
The bank account of the Cricket Association, Lucknow, (CAL) has been frozen following an alleged conspiracy by a rival group that claims to be the genuine body of the game in the state capital.
The issue came to the fore on Wednesday when UCO bank branch at the LDA building in Lalbagh refused the CAL women’s cricket boss Jasbeer Singh a payment of Rs 8,000 against a cheque. “The account has been frozen. So, no payment can be made through this account,” Singh was told by the bank officials. Confirming it, CAL secretary KM Khan said on Thursday that he met the bank officials and protested the freezing of account on ‘false’ ground. Khan expressed hope the account would become operational again soon.
However he accepted if the account was not unfrozen soon, the women’s team of CAL, which is supposed to leave for Kolkata to participate in an All-India tournament within this week, won’t be able to proceed.
“It’s wrongdoing on the part of the authorities concerned as how one can freeze the account without letting us know and that too on a fake ground,” Khan told HT. “We have submitted our complaints and if nothing was done within a day or two, the women’s team won’t be travelling to Kolkata for event,” Khan added.
Khan also informed that a few CAL members had got another CAL registered in 2005 and were suspended from all activities of the cricketing body. “We revoked their suspensions when they gave us in writing about the withdrawal of the registration, but now we have come to know that they never did it.”
In fact, the bone of contention among the different stakeholders of the game in the state capital is no-election of the cricketing body since 2005-06.
“We are in the process of hold elections soon,” said Khan, who has been holding the posts of secretary since 1984 with a break of three years in between.
He also accepted that in the wake of the Lodha panel recommendations, the CAL while following in the footsteps of its parent body UP Cricket Association converted itself into a private limited company with six directors to remain at the helm of affairs. “Yes, we have converted into a private limited company like the UPCA but soon we will have a working committee to run the game in the state capital,” said Khan, who accepted that due to unavoidable circumstances, CAL couldn’t hold its annual function since 2012.
CAL has 100-110 units and reportedly has Rs 50 lakh plus in its account.
Meanwhile, bank manager Anil Kumar confirmed that there was a written complaint about the embezzlement of funds by one of the signatories of the CAL. So as per the provisions of the bank, the operation of the account had been stopped.
“One can deposit the funds in the account, but no can withdraw money from it. I have already checked the bona fide of the cricketing body with registrar of the societies and only after confirming from all quarters, the bank stopped the operation of the account,” Kumar told HT. “Even I have informed my high ups about it and I don’t think that operation of account isn’t possible in near future,” Kumar said.