RCA rival factions accommodated at BCCI AGM

Mumbai:

The 80th AGM of the Cricket Board here on Thursday was livened up by the presence of two factions fighting to take control of the Rajasthan Cricket Association.

Head of one faction, Sanjay Dixit, and the leader of the rival faction, Rajendra Singh Rathore, were both given permission by BCCI president Shashank Manohar to attend the meeting and sign the register.

"We had to allow both to attend the meeting as it is a complicated matter and there was no judicial order (in favour of one or the other)," said Manohar after the meeting.

"If there had been a situation to cast a vote we would have allowed both to vote and kept them sealed. But there was no issue where a vote was needed," he said.

The infighting in the RCA also resulted in the first ODI between India and Australia, allotted to Jaipur and scheduled on October 25, being given to the Baroda Cricket Association.

"The first ODI between India and Australia will now be held at Baroda and not Jaipur," Manohar said.

Both factions and their supporters put on a brave face and said RCA would get an ODI by rotation during the next home series against Sri Lanka in November-December.

Dixit also took the opportunity to lay the blame for the fracas squarely on Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman and former RCA president, which the latter simply dismissed as not worthy of a comment