RCA polls to be held before December 18: Vinod Saharan

Elections at Rajasthan Cricket Association’s (RCA) will be held before December 18. The news was confirmed by Vinod Saharan who is the convener of the ad hoc committee, formed to run the association. “We are yet to earmark the final date, but it will be before December 18. The panel is working upon it,” said Saharan.

Not long ago, RCA had amended its constitution on the lines of Lodha Panel Recommendations and the same was accepted by the Registrar of Cooperatives Societies, but the apex cricket body BCCI is yet to acknowledge the changes accomodated.

It was 14 months ago that elections at RCA were held, but the situation remains as grim and volatile as ever with cricket gasping for breath. Congress leader CP Joshi, who was elected as the president of RCA on June 2, 2017, vowed to ensure that the sport remained in the pink of its health, but failed miserably and to the extent that the murky politics of power reached a saturation point and Registrar of Cooperative Societies had to dissolve the association’s executive committee.

Endless High Court hearings are the order of the day and instead of battles being fought on cricket grounds, showdowns in court have become a permanent fixture. Every meeting held since June, 2017 ended with a bitter argument with both parties claiming of non-cooperation. While Modi camp always took legal route to pull Joshi faction down, the latter resorted to poor tactics that only led them cut a sorry figure.

From suspending the then RCA secretary RS Nandu in June 2017, to indulging in fraudulent means in handing over stadium renovation tender during IPL, to appointing his Man Friday Bhawani Singh Samota as one point contact between BCCI, Rajasthan Royals and RCA and suspending former treasurer Pinkesh Jain, are just a few incidents to quote that made news since the time polls were held at RCA.

Certainly, CP Joshi’s tenure was a chequered one. The Congress leader can call himself fortunate that during his tenure he could at least get IPL back in Jaipur, but if the words of state sports minister Gajendra Singh Khimsar are to be believed, “IPL was bound to come to Jaipur, CP Joshi has no role to play in it”.

On A Sticky Wicket

On June 24, 2017, in its first meeting, the executive committee headed by Joshi had suspended Nagaur Cricket Association and had also suspended Nandu who was elected secretary of RCA.
Nandu in a letter to CP Joshi objected on the appointment of one Bhawani Shankar Samota, a close aide of Joshi, as the one point contact on behalf of RCA.
HC on March 10 passed an order restraining Samota from acting as point person of the state cricket body.

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