Cricket: BCCI likely to call off ongoing India-New Zealand series
Other home series may also be cancelled, though the Lodha panel contradicted reports and said there is 'no question' of this happening.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India is likely to call off the ongoing India-New Zealand series, which still has one Test match and five One-Day Internationals lined up, reported The Indian Express. The move comes after Justice LM Lodha committee’s on Monday asked banks to freeze BCCI accounts. The cricket body has not yet officially announced the cancellation of the ongoing series though.
“We have no option other than to call off the India-New Zealand series as our banks have decided to freeze BCCI accounts. How can we function, how can we hold any games now? Who will make the payment?," said a senior board official. According to Cricbuzz, other home series with Australia, Bangladesh and England may also face a similar fate.
Justice Lodha, however, said that the BCCI's "routine expenses" have not been curtailed at all, and that the banks were only told to confine large disbursements to state bodies only. Lodha added that the banks were not told to "freeze" accounts and that that was a misinterpretation of their order, ANI reported on Tuesday. He said there was "no question" of cancelling any series.
On Monday, the Supreme Court-appointed committee asked banks to stop disbursing funds for financial decisions made by the BCCI. The committee said that as per its directive, the board was not supposed to make any decision on issues apart from “routine matters”. “The disbursement of these amounts are not routine,” said the letter issued by the panel. While the Bank of Maharashtra froze the BCCI account on Monday, Yes Bank has not made its decision yet, reported The Times of India.