The Hindu : National : Ganguly issue: plea for early hearing rejected

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 12, 2006

National

National

Ganguly issue: plea for early hearing rejected

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has refused to entertain the application for early hearing of the petition challenging the exclusion of former skipper Sourav Ganguly from the Indian cricket team for the ODI series against Pakistan.

A Bench comprising Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice Dalveer Bhandari on Friday declined to fix the petition for early hearing, saying that scientists, doctors, engineers and other professionally qualified persons were not being given due place in the country as compared to cricketers.

``India will not be at the receiving end if it does not play matches'' the Court observed while turning down the plea for early hearing of the writ petition filed by a TV journalist.

The petitioner's counsel, V.N. Sharaf, contended that the petition shall become infructuous as the ongoing ODI series between India and Pakistan may be over by the time the matter is listed for hearing.

The petitioner has sought directions to the BCCI Selection Committee to place before the court the minutes of the meeting that picked the Indian team for the ODI series.

The petitioner also alleged that Ganguly was a victim of board politics and had been dropped from the team on considerations other than merit as he had been doing well both in domestic cricket and in the recent three-test series against Pakistan.

UNI

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