Pub brawl: Players to get BCCI notice

Mumbai:

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will issue show cause notices on Tuesday to four Indian cricketers, including Yuvraj Singh, for allegedly being involved in an altercation at a nightclub in St Lucia after India's humiliating exit from Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies. The Board is expected to reprimand these four players for indiscipline.

According to BCCI sources, besides Yuvraj Singh, show cause notices will also be served to Rohit Sharma, Ashish Nehra and Ravindra Jadeja.

The tough stand by the Board came in the wake of tour manager Ranjib's Biswal's report to BCCI President Shashank Manohar and his meeting on Monday with the latter at BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.

Without naming either the errant players or their number, BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty said show cause notices would be sent to these players by Board Secretary N Srinivasan on Tuesday at the behest of Manohar.

"The manager of Indian team, Ranjib Biswal, met the Board President. The Board President and Secretary took information from him regarding the West Indies tour and also from the written report (submitted by Biswal earlier)," Shetty said.

"We also conducted an enquiry over the incident in the West Indies that was widely reported in the media. After considering all the information that we have gathered, the President took the decision that the Board Secretary will issue show cause notices to those players on Tuesday," he said.

Shetty, however, said identity of the players would be revealed only when the notice is issued on Tuesday.

The Board decided to crack the whip on these players after a hue and cry was raised in the media about the brawl on the night the team crashed out of the tournament following their third straight defeat in the Super Eight stage.

The hardened stand of the Board came after Biswal met Manohar and Srinivasan to give them first-hand information of the happenings in the Caribbean.

The incident for which the players are about to be hauled over the coals happened at the "Tequila Joe's" pub on May 11 at Gros Islet after India lost to Sri Lanka in their last Super Eight fixture and crashed out.

According to reports, eight Indian cricketers were in the same pub when the fans started taunting and abusing them for their failure to reach the semi-final and the cricketers reacted leading to the brawl.

The reports were promptly denied by Yuvraj on his Twitter page where he wrote "There was no fight, not even an argument" and asked the media not to "make up stories".

After returning home, Nehra too denied there was a brawl in which the players were involved.

"No one said anything to us. There were many fans from all over the world from different teams but nothing happened with us," Nehra had told reporters.

"As far as my knowledge goes, no untoward incident happened with us. We went to have our dinner there and were watching the West Indies and Australia match. Rest of the things that I am listening now, I have no knowledge of anything," he had said. (With PTI input)