Bihar Cricket Players Association Protest Outside Dalmiya's Residence, Demand BCCI Affiliation

Bihar Cricket Players Association protested outside Indian cricket Board (BCCI) president Jagmohan Dalmiya's residence in Kolkata on Saturday demanding affiliation. Bihar lost BCCI's recognition in 2000 when the state was divided. Jharkhand is the unit currently recognized by the Board. (More Cricket News)

Earlier, Cricket Association of Bihar secretary Aditya Verma had also written a letter to the Sports Minister on the functioning and monopoly of BCCI. Verma urged the BCCI to consider the case of Bihar and other states who are struggling to play first class domestic cricket tournament conducted by BCCI. (Dalmiya Bats for Declaration of Interests by BCCI Officials)

Interestingly, Bihar have three cricket units. Apart from Verma's two more associations exit. Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav leads one of them. (BCCI Officials to Sign 'No Conflict of Interest')

Verma has earned the tag of "habitual petitioner" and he was at the forefront of the Public Interest Litigations (PIL) filed against former BCCI top boss N. Srinivasan after the IPL spot fixing scandal erupted. After the Tamil Nadu cricket strongman stepped aside over charges of conflict of interest, Verma had also demanded Srinivasan's ouster as International Cricket Council chairman. (Srinivasan Shouldn't Represent BCCI in ICC: Verma)

Here is the full excerpt of the copy written by Verma:

The Hon'ble Sports Minister,

Government of India,

New Delhi.

Sir,

With due respect I want to draw your kind attention on the function and monopoly of BCCI. There are 27 teams who are playing the Ist class domestic Cricket Tournament conducted by the BCCI (Board). These are the teams 1. Bengal, 2. Odisha, 3. Maharashtra, 4. Rajasthan 5. Assam, 6. Haryana, 7. Vidharbha, 8. Delhi, 9. Karnatka, 10. Punjab, 11. Tamilnadu, 12. Madhya Pradesh, 13. Mumbai, 14. Gujrat, 15. U.P., 16. Baroda, 17. Railways, 18. Andhra Pradesh, 19. Jharkhand, 20. Saurashtra, 21. Hyderabad, 22. Himachal Pradesh, 23. Tripura, 24. Kerala, 25. Services, 26. Goa, 27. Jammu and Kashmir. They are full members of board. Cricket Club of India (Mumbai), National Cricket Club (Kolkata) and Indian University. These are also full members of Board. Total 30 full members who have opportunity to cast their vote in the election of BCCI.

Three states Gujarat have three Ranji Trophy Team, Maharashtra have three Ranji Trophy Team and Andhra Pradesh have two Ranji Trophy Team, total 8 teams from these 3 states.

Out of 29 states there are only 20 states get opportunities to select their state Cricket Teams for the first class cricket tournament conducted by the board and also only first class cricketer have right to play for the nation on the performance of domestic matches. BCCI also recommended his players for the prestigious sports award like Bharat Ratna, Arjuna Award, Padamshree, Dronacharya to Sports Ministry.

My humble request to you what is the fault of other nine states Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Utarakhand, Pondicherry, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Manipur and Mizoram why the BCCI is not considered these states for the first class cricket matches conducted by the Board or provide opportunity to develop their skill and coaching. As an Indian born the cricketer of these states have full fundamental rights to represent the India and their respective states.

Very surprisingly Bihar the third highest populated states of the country has lost his membership after the bifurcation of the state of Bihar in the year 2000.

Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, passed an order dated 22.01.2015 in his order para 27 the court said, The Board is a society registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. It enjoys a monopoly status as regards regulations of the sports of cricket in terms of its Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association. It controls the sports of cricket and lay down the law therefore. It inter alia enjoys benefits by way of tax exemption and right to use stadia at nominal annual rent. It earns a huge revenue not only by selling ticket to views but also selling right to exhibit films live on TV and broadcasting the same. Ordinarily, its full members are the State Associations except Association of Indian Universities, Railway Sports Control Boards and Services Sports Control Board. As a members of ICC, it represents the country in the international fora, it exercises enormous public functions. It has the authorities to select players, umpires and officials to represent the country in the international fora. it exercise total control over the players, umpires and other officer. The rules of the board clearly demonstrate the without its recognition no competitive cricket can be hosted either within or outside the country, its control over the sport of competitive cricket is deeply pervasive and complete.

In para 28 court said,

It was the argued that the Board discharges public duties which are in the nature of State functions. Elaborating on this argument it was pointed out that the Board selects a team to represent India in international matches. The board makes rules that govern the activities of the cricket. These, according to the petitioner, are all in the nature of State functions are name entity which discharges such function can only be an instrumentality of state, therefore, the board falls within the definition of State for the purpose of falls within the definition of State for the purpose of Article 12. Assuming that the above-mentioned function of the Board do amount to public duties or state functions, the question for our consideration is would this be sufficient to hold the board to be a state for the purpose of Article 12? While considering this aspects of the argument of the petitioner, it should be borne in mid that the State/Union has not chosen the Board to perform these duties nor has it legally authorized the Board to carry out these factions under any law or agreement. It has chosen to leave the activities of cricket to be controlled by private bodies out of such bodies own volition (self-arrogated). In such circumstances when the actions of the Board are not actions as an authorized representative of the State, can it be said that the Board is discharging State functions? The answer should be no. in the absence of any authorization, if a private body chooses to discharge any such function which is not prohibited by law then it would be incorrect to hold that such actions of the body would make it an instrumentality of the State. The union of India has tried to make out a case that the Board discharges these functions because of the defacto recognition granted by it to the Board under the guidelines framed by it, but the Board has denied the same. In this regard we must hold that the Union of India has failed to prove that there is any recognition by the Union of India under the guidelines framed by it, and that the Board is discharging these functions on its own as an autonomous body.

In para 29 this court observed:-

Be that as it may, it cannot be denied that the board does discharge some duties like the selection of an Indian Cricket team, controlling the activities of the players and other involved in the game of cricket. These activities can be said to be akin to public duties or state functions and if there is any violation of any constitutional or statutory obligation or rights of other citizens, the aggrieved party may not have a relief by way of a petitioner under Article 32. But that does not mean that the violator of such right would go scot free merely because it or he is not a state under the Indian jurisprudence there is always a just remedy for the violation of a right of a citizen.

As per historical order passed by Hon'ble Supreme Court on 22.1.2015 if any aggrieved party can always seek a remedy under the ordinary course of law or by way of a writ petition under Article 226 of constitution.

In the light of order dated 22.1.2015 being a citizen of the country, my humble request to Sports Minister to kindly intervene in the matter and gave direction / advice to officials of BCCI to make an arrangement and look the matter urgently related to full membership of Bihar and other non-recognised state immediately.

Thanks with regards,

Yours

Aditya Verma

Secretary

CAB