PIL moved in HC challenging TNCA rule

Chennai, Dec 13 (UNI) A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was today moved in the Madras High Court, challenging Rule 10 of Chapter IV of the TNCA rules governing league championship tournament for the year 2006-07.

A Division Bench, Comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Mr Justice K Chandru, ordered notices, to the TNCA and BCCI, while posting to December 18 further hearing on the PIL filed by A Gilbert and eight other cricketers from Puducherry, who also sought to stay the South Zone Tournaments conducted for senior and junior levels by the BCCI for the current cricketing season.

In their petition, Gilbert and others submitted that the TNCA had come up with a circular dated July 7, 2006 whereby a retrospective ruling in Chapter IV, clause 10 in the rules governing league championship tournament for the year 2006-07 has been passed, thereby strangulating the entire cricketing community in a single stroke.

As per this rule, any player who has played in the tournaments conducted by any cricket association not recognised/approved by the TNCA was not eligible to participate in the TNCA league.

Besides, any team which includes such players for any matches will be deemd to have lost that particular match (es), they submitted.

Almost all the cricketers in Puducherry are playing for the Government and the State Sports Council recognised Cricket Association of Puducherry. Further, it had conducted tournaments throughout Pondicherry, that cover inter-school, inter-college, clubs and institutions. Such a unilateral ban was arbitrary and totally undemocratic, they contended.

They also submitted that though Goa, once a Union Territory, was placed among the South Zone Team instead of keeping it out, Puducherry was not considered to be a part of the TNCA. The objectives of the Constitution of TNCA would indicate that the benefits and the schemes-- promoted and envisaged-- by the BCCI should be for the benefit of the cricketers who hail from Puducherry and the state of Tamil Nadu, they added.

UNI XR KD RN2129