BCCI to RCA: Remove Lalit to get suspension revoked
The Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) is “trying hard” to contact former IPL chairman Lalit Modi to “request” him to quit the post he holds in a district unit of the state body.
Reason: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made it clear that it will not revoke the suspension of the RCA till it disassociates itself from Lalit Modi. The former IPL chairman , who left India in 2010 after facing charges of financial irregularity in the cash-rich IPL, is still the president of Nagaur District Cricket Association, which is part of the RCA.
RCA secretary Rajendra Singh Nandu said he had been trying to contact Lalit Modi, who is now in exile in London. “We will request the former RCA president Lalit Modi to leave the Nagaur District Cricket Association's president post for the betterment of cricket. I tried hard to contact him but in vain. Now, we will take up this issue in the executive committee meeting on June 24 at the RCA office,” Nandu told HT. In the state cricket circles, Nandu is considered to be close to the former IPL chairman.
The BCCI had expelled Lalit Modi in 2013. A year later, he contested the polls to the post of RCA president and won. Minutes after the results were declared, the BCCI suspended the RCA for allowing a banned individual to be part of its internal affairs.
Earlier this month, Congress leader C P Joshi was elected the RCA president in a high voltage election where he was pitted against Lalit Modi’s son Ruchir. The victory had also come as a sweet revenge for Joshi, who had to withdraw from the election against Lalit Modi in 2014 after being deserted by his own supporters. “I will have to look into every aspect of this suspension but getting it revoked would be my first priority. For this, I need support from all quarters including the state government,” Joshi had told media in his first press conference after being elected to the RCA top post.
Sources said Joshi had also written to the BCCI requesting it to revoke the suspension but the top cricket body reiterated that it won’t do so until Lalit Modi was removed also from the primary bodies of RCA.
With there hardly being any hope of Lalit Modi voluntarily resigning from the post, it is likely that the district association may call a general body meeting and remove him from the post with a majority vote. Sources said, another option was to dissolve the Nagaur district cricket association, but the RCA may not go for that.