Hint of discontent to SC ruling as TNCA refuses to host India-England U19 matches

In a very unusual turn of events, the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) recently wrote a letter to BCCI CEO Rahul Johri refusing to host U19 matches next month. Chennai was due to host U19 youth Tests between India and England in February. The BCCI has informed the TNCA about the same a month ago. However, as per recent reports in Hindustan Times, the state association has now backed off from hosting the matches. Many sense it as a backlash from the board following the recent Supreme Court ruling and the Lodha recommendations.

In a letter to the BCCI CEO, the TNCA joint secretary Mr. RJ Palani mentioned that the venue is expected to host many domestic matches as a result of which they will not host the U19 games. The letter read, “We regret to inform you that we are unable to host the matches at Chennai due to various domestic programmes scheduled during the period.”

The recent Supreme Court ruling had resulted in the ouster of several top officials in the state associations who had been incumbent in their position for a long time. One of the ousted members was Kasi Viswanathan, the TNCA Secretary. In a quote, Kasi quoted that the cyclone is the reason due to which they will not be hosting the U19 matches. This reason, however, does not sound logical enough as Chennai had successfully hosted the final Test between India and England recently – and that too just four days after cyclone Vardah had hit the city.

“We have a lot of domestic matches to host. Due to the disruption caused by the cyclone, a lot of our grounds are facing issues and we haven’t been able to host matches. So we have expressed our inability,” the TNCA secretary quoted. He further added that the board was aware of the fact that they have to host the matches but had never given the confirmation about the same to the BCCI. “We were asked by the BCCI, but we had never committed to it,” he conceded.