The Hindu : Sport : KCA takes action against staff members

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Wednesday, Jul 04, 2007
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Sport - Sports : General

KCA takes action against staff members

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Cricket Association, following the adverse remarks made against them by its internal audit committee, has asked all its three staff members to stay away from office until further notice.

The direction to this effect was issued by the interim KCA president, T.R. Balakrishnan on Tuesday. Confirming the action taken against the KCA executive secretary, A. Narayanan and two other staff members, Narayanan Nair and Sudhir Aly, Mr. Balakrishnan told The Hindu over telephone that this was being done so as to avoid tampering of the records in connection with the findings made against them by the in-house internal audit committee.

Asked why the staff alone were being singled out when such senior officials like the KCA secretary and joint secretary too were among those indicted by the committee, Mr. Balakrishnan skipped the issue altogether by saying that a detailed probe was being done to bring out the whole truth. The probe would be done by a three-member committee comprising S. Haridas, Sunil Koshy and R. Radhakrishnan, all KCA vice-presidents. The committee will have its first sitting either in Kochi or in Thiruvananthapuram on July 7.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Sports Council president, T.P. Dasan, while talking to the media, termed the findings of the KCA internal audit committee as quite ‘unfortunate’. Though the KSC was not in receipt of any complaint, officially, the Council was still seized of the matter, he said.

The issue will be discussed with the officials of the KCA and further action would depend upon the outcome of the talks with them.

In a related development, ten former Kerala Ranji Trophy players, through a joint statement urged the Board of Control for Cricket of India (BCCI) and the Kerala Government to institute an independent high-level probe into the findings of the KCA internal audit committee. Terming the scandal as a big blow to the image of Kerala cricket, the players also said steps should be taken to ensure that the KCA’s funds are accounted for properly and in a transparent manner in the future.

The signatories to the statement were S. Ramesh, Ranjit Thomas, K. Jayaram, J.K. Mahendra, C.M. Ashok Sekhar, O.K. Ramdas, T. Sivadas, Thomas Mathew, V. Narayanan Kutty and T.C. Sudeesh.

District tournament

YMCA (Thiruvananthapuram) will conduct a district-level chess tournament from July 6 to 8. Competition will be held in under-10 and 7 categories. Interested players can register at the YMCA office till 5 p.m. on July 5 and can call ph: 2330059, 2339078 or 2338444 for details.

Junior championship

The State junior chess championship will be held in Thiruvananthapuram from July 14 to 16. Those born on or after January 1, 1988, are eligible. For details, call 99954 33792 or 94477 95045.

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