The BCCI has said that there was no move to reinstate the Services team back into the Ranji trophy this season. Earlier the apex cricket body in India had banned the Services side because they had failed to turn up at Srinagar for their game against Jammu and Kashmir. Apparently, the side had not turned up for the game because there were rumours that the extreme elements would have disrupted the game in form or the other, which would have been embarrassing for the government.
After the Services side had not turned up for the game, and rumours floating around were the security reasons, the BCCI had wasted no time in banning them. Now, there has been a lot of pressure from various political quarters on BCCI to overturn the decision. The Home Minister of the country, P Chidambaram, has said that the side could not reach Jammu and Kashmir due to an administrative goof-up and that if they had apologised, fresh dates must be allocated by the BCCI for their games.
The deputy defence minister, Pallam Raju also said that it was unfortunate that the side had failed to turn up for the game. But even he advocated the top cricketing authority in India to allow the side to play on fresh dates given that the side had apologised.
However, the BCCI looks to be very firm on its decision and has said that it will not renege on it. A very senior BCCI official said, “We are aware that there have been appeals at various levels to accept the apology and reschedule the match. But the decison to ban Services was taken as per established rules, and there is no change in our position on the issue.”
However, it remains to be seen whether the BCCI can continue going ahead with the decision given that Sharad Pawar has a strong say in the BCCI – given that he was former BCCI President and the future ICC President – and also plays a major role in the current Indian ruling government. There is a definite chance that the government would use that route to pressurise the BCCI into overturning the decision, which is seen to be a major slap in the face of the defence ministry which has been saying that the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir has improved over the period of time.
