Karnataka MLAs slam cricket association

The Anil Kumble-run Karnataka State Cricket Association came in the line of fire in the Assembly as members demanded a Legislative Assembly committee to probe its affairs and alleged ticket sale scam ahead of the February 27 India-England World Cup tie.

Several members expressed anger with the way ticket sales was managed and the raw deal that they got despite the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the fixture was staged, being Government-leased land.

Police on February 24 lathicharged frenzied cricket fans as chaos broke out during sale of tickets amid allegations that a significant chunk was floating in the black market. The lathicharge issue was raised through a calling attention motion by N L Narendrababu, N Sampangi (both Cong) and S R Vishwanath (BJP).

Narendrababu sought Government response vis-a-vis its role given that the Stadium land belonged to it and allegations of black-marketing of tickets.

Vishwanath said: "5000 tickets were meant for the public. But as per my information, only 1000 tickets were sold; rest were sold in the market".

He blamed the new KSCA team (Kumble is its President; Srinath the Secretary) for the chaos and said MLAs were given a raw deal, as he pushed for constituting a House panel to probe the issues.

Several members were on their feet supporting the demand for a House committee.

Senior MLA T B Jayachandra (Congress) said only a House committee would tame the KSCA. "Otherwise, shift it (KSCA-Chinnaswamy Stadium) to the outskirts".

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister S Suresh Kumar suggested a detailed discussion on the issues on Thursday and deciding on it thereafter .

"We will decide on it (constituting House committee) after detailed discussions on March three",Speaker K G Bopaiah said.