Photo Courtesy: India Today Group
Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh forfeited its Ranji Trophy Plate Group opener against Nagaland. The match was set for October 11 in Ahmedabad. An internal collapse within the Arunachal Pradesh Cricket Association caused the mess. There is no functioning authority left to pick a team.
The administrative breakdown reached the junior level. Arunachal Pradesh failed to field an Under-19 squad for a Thursday Vinoo Mankad Trophy game against Sikkim in Bhubaneswar. Rival factions within the state association are fighting over September election results. These groups took the battle to the Itanagar bench of the Gauhati High Court to allege election fraud.
Nabam Vivek won the presidential race during the September polls. District associations challenged the outcome immediately. The court reserved its order. This legal hurdle bars the Board of Control for Cricket in India from intervening. BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia explained the deadlock. "There is a stay order from the court and the BCCI cannot step in. There is no one running the state body. Until the court gives the clearance, we cannot do anything," Saikia told reporters.
The BCCI previously fixed similar messes in Bihar by forming independent selection panels. They remain sidelined here. Arunachal Pradesh finished last in the Plate Group last season after dropping all five matches. The team shares the current group with Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Sikkim.
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