Tweet
The final of the Sixth Under-16 Lala Amarnath Cricket Tournament could not be completed on Friday due to "unsporting reasons". The final between Unity Cricket Academy and LDACC being held at KD Singh 'Babu' Stadium had to be stopped mid-way because the Lucknow Cricket Academy (LCA) team did not want the match to progress.
Cricket Association Lucknow (CAL) which was organising the tournament will now hold a meeting on Saturday to discuss the fate of the final as well as the 'episode' which took place on Friday.
Umpire Rashid who didn't want to speak much on the episode only said that an LCA official came up to him and "asked me politely to take the bails off so I took them off. Unity had finished its innings by then and the LDACC innings were in progress." However, sources confirmed on condition of anonymity that the LCA official even overturned the scorers' table to prevent the match from taking place.
When contacted, secretary CAL KM Khan said, "Yesterday, before the semi-finals between LCA and Unity, a medical examination was held. Out of the team list submitted, only five or six players turned up for the medical out of which one was found over age. To this LCA official Arshi Raza said that he had sports certificates to prove that the player was not over age and I told him that if he gets the supporting documents, he will be allowed to play. Meanwhile, I asked the other players to take the field so the that the match could progress."
Khan alleged that since the team was short of players, it was resorting to "delay tactics". When some players reached there, only then the team became ready to take the field. "I told Raza that due to the delay which was for about 15 minutes, two overs will be cut from the team's innings. Raza did not agree to this and the entire team walked out of the field without playing the match. Raza later submitted a protest letter regarding the same. On Friday, he came during the final and toppled the scorers' table. Since, I was in Kanpur today, therefore, in order to ensure that no violence takes place, I asked the match officials to postpone the match and leave the field at around 3.00 pm."
However, when contacted Arshi Raza claimed, "I did not enter the field at all."
When questioned about reports that he toppled the scorers' table, Arshi said, "I was only standing near the scorers' table. Actually, in 'josh' (enthusiasm), some boys visited the stadium and protested against the final match from progressing. I was in Unnao at that time." "We have been champions in the tourney thrice and the boys were angry that how can the match be organised without considering our protest which we had submitted yesterday. We had protested that about four players in the other team "were" over age and also about the two overs being cut," he added.
Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds
