Rs 35 lakh on bananas for players: High court notice to BCCI
BCCI: The Uttarakhand High Court has indeed issued a notice to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) regarding alleged financial irregularities and misuse of funds by the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (UCA), now known as the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU).
The case stems from petitions filed by residents of Dehradun, including Sanjay Rawat, who have highlighted an external audit report of the CAU’s accounts for the 2024-25 financial year.
The petitioners have brought forward several startling claims, the most prominent of which is the alleged expenditure of Rs 35 lakh on “bananas for players.”
This is part of a larger accusation that the CAU has misused approximately Rs 12 crore in government funds that were meant for organizing cricket tournaments.
The audit report also points to other suspicious expenses, including:
Rs 6.4 crore paid as event management fees.
Rs 26.3 crore spent on tournaments and trial matches, which is a significant increase from the previous year.
The petitioners allege that despite these massive expenses, the players in the state have not received the promised facilities and that the funds intended for cricket development have been siphoned off for personal gain by the association’s office bearers.
Court’s Action:
The Uttarakhand High Court’s single bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari took cognizance of these serious allegations and issued a notice to the BCCI. The court has scheduled the next hearing for this Friday.
This is not the first time the Uttarakhand High Court has intervened in the affairs of the state’s cricket body.
A separate case regarding alleged irregularities in the tender process for the Uttarakhand Premier League (UPL) is also being heard by the court.
