Published On : Wed, Aug 6th, 2014

BCCI’s U-Turn : Umpire Academy is in Nagpur but activities shifted to Bangalore

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Nagpur News.

BCCI Umpire Academy in Nagpur is reportedly at the helm of long going infighting between the current board and Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA). The tension has resulted into the academy going almost defunct without any yield. Sources also indicated the differences between former BCCI president Shashank Manohar and current President N. Srinivisan as the one of the reasons behind actively shifting activities of umpires academy away from Nagpur to Bangalore. The relation between Manohar and Srinivisan reportedly turned sour after the IPL6 spot fixing expose last year.

Since then, the umpires’ activities have been moved to the National Cricket Academy campus in Bangalore. Umpires Academy in Nagpur was formed in 2010 with an objective to provide a wholesome training exercise for domestic umpires to raise their standards. But over the last year no such activity has been witnessed in this academy.

On the other hand, the retired Simon Taufel, the most consistent international umpire over the last decade, will conduct a 15-day umpires’ workshop in Bangalore from Wednesday.

The VCA officials and a few BCCI members admit that the sudden switch from Nagpur is following Manohar’s vocal dissent against N Srinivasan in the aftermath of last year’s IPL corruption scandal. The BCCI, however, has a different take.

However VCA Honorable Secretary Wijay Chitaley beg to differ. Talking to Nagpur Today, Chitaley said, “There is no dispute or controversy at all.” When asked about his reaction on shifting umpires’ activities to Bangalore, he said, “Well that is BCCI’s decision. What can be said in that matter.”

Nagpur Today also tried to contact VCA Executive Member Vishwas Sahasrabhojane but he remained unavailable for the comment.

A BCCI insider revealed that moving umpires’ developmental activities from Nagpur to Bangalore is in line with the BCCI’s plan to bring all its specialist academies under the NCA umbrella. A BCCI office bearer seconded it but refused to speak on record since the proposal is “yet to be ratified by the working committee”.

Despite the reorganisation of the academies, the feud between Manohar and N Srinivasan cannot be overlooked. Interestingly, the alternate venue of Bangalore makes the intra-BCCI political undercurrents even more visible. Karnataka State Cricket Association secretary Brijesh Patel, a Srinivasan aide, is one of the aspirants for the BCCI secretary’s post in next month’s elections.

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