The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : A transparent association free of bureaucratic attitude: Wadiyar

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A transparent association free of bureaucratic attitude: Wadiyar

Principal Correspondent

Bangalore: The scion of the Mysore royal family, Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, who will contest for the post of the KSCA president in the elections scheduled for September 9, promised that he and his team will run a “transparent association free of bureaucratic attitude and one that is member-friendly.”

Wadiyar spoke to the media here on Saturday and besides revealing his “agenda for cricket development,” also rebutted some recent claims made by the current KSCA secretary Brijesh Patel and vice-president and presidential candidate Gundappa Viswanath. Wadiyar was flanked on either side by G. Kasturirangan — who is contesting against the present incumbent Brijesh Patel — and Syed Kirmani, vice-presidential candidate.

Wadiyar promised that if elected he and his fellow office-bearers will ensure transparency in selection, will run coaching camps by ex-cricketers under the KSCA banner, will bar members from carrying out any business transaction with the association and will also route all land-acquisition deals through the Government in a bid to ensure authenticity of title deeds and prevent financial irregularities.

Support

Wadiyar also stressed that he has played cricket at university-level and that his love for the game and cricketing credentials cannot be questioned. He also added that he had the support of many cricketers, former and present.

He added that industrialist Vijay Mallya had also evinced interest in his campaign. Wadiyar also ruled out a compromise deal with the current association office-bearers.

He alleged that there was no truth in Patel’s recent statement that the KSCA had a deficit of Rs. 60 lakh when the current ruling body took charge in 1998. In his press release, Wadiyar enclosed a 1998 balance sheet copy that mentioned a surplus of Rs. 12 crore. Wadiyar also alleged that the current ruling body has failed to promote cricket and that the lands acquired all over the State for development of infrastructure, were lying idle.

He said that the game has not grown in rural areas and added that the technological progress stated by the current association was a “routine development and not a matter of pride.” Wadiyar also mentioned that the regular inflow of Karnataka players into the Indian team has subsided.

Meanwhile, Wadiyar reiterated that he had no ambitions of becoming an office-bearer of the BCCI. “There is so much work that needs to be done here and as for office-bearers in the BCCI, we will nominate our candidates from our committee,” Wadiyar said. He added if elected, he and his team would not entertain any requests from the ICL.

The press conference also witnessed some angst as K. Jagannath, former KSCA vice-president, was questioned over his sudden switch to the Wadiyar camp from the ruling body, just last week. Jagannath mentioned that he was hurt by an affidavit filed in the court against alleged irregularities by the earlier KSCA committee led by C. Nagaraj. “I was also part of that committee and I have a clean slate but that affidavit which was passed without me knowing about it, hurt me a lot and I thought that I should move out,” Jagannath said.

Later, Wadiyar, Kasturirangan and Kirmani filed their nominations.

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