Sport Cricket Jurisdiction Bihar Founded 1936 (1936) | Category v under 16 Abbreviation BCA | |
Affiliation Board of Control for Cricket in India | ||
Bihar Cricket Association is a body of the cricket activities in the Bihar state of India and the Bihar cricket team. It is affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India as full member. BCA was founded in 1935.
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Association of Bihar Cricket (ABC)
The issue of affiliation got a fresh twist when BJP MP and former test cricketer Kirti Azad jumped into it with his own Association of Bihar Cricket (ABC). Later in Oct 2009, singer Manoj Tiwari was elected the President of ABC. In July 2010, Kirti Azad attacked Bihar Cricket Association chief Lalu Prasad accusing him of ruining cricket in the state by running the BCA in an arbitrary manner.
Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB)
While the controversy over actual affiliation of cricket bodies in Bihar to the BCCI went on, a group of officials of the BCA parted ways to form another association Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) with Shekhar Sinha as chief and Aditya Verma as Secretary. In the interregnum, the return of Lalu Prasad as Union minister and election of his cabinet colleague Sharad Pawar raised some hope for cricket as the BCCI offered associate membership to the BCA in 2008 by allowing it to organise junior level matches. However that decision was challenged in the court and the hope was short-lived after the BJP-JD(U) coalition government in the state cancelled the BCA's registration for breach of norms. ABC chairman Azad is also said to have been instrumental in it. As of late 2013, CAB was in a legal battle with BCCI over the issue of the conflict of interest of N. Srinivasan.
Bihar along with the Sikkim Cricket Association, Manipur Cricket Association and Chhattisgarh State Cricket Sangh are BCCI's associate members. As an associate member, BCA gets an annual grant of Rs 75 lakh from the BCCI.
Courts' directives on affiliation
Cricket should be kept free from politics and the game should not become a ball for politicians, the Supreme Court of India observed on 25 November 2012. The remarks were made by the bench during the hearing of a petition relating to the ongoing dispute between two rival associations of cricket in Bihar for running the administration of the sport in the state. Patna High Court has directed Board of Cricket Control in India, BCCI in July 2012 to include Bihar in various National Level Cricket Tournaments. Patna High Court on 20 September 2011 allowed CAB, rival Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) faction headed by Binod Kumar to operate its account with a nationalised bank. Patna High court in November 2011,directed the state government to file an intervener petition in a case related to the Bihar Cricket Association.The government's counsel, AAG 1 Lalit Kishore, told the court that both the factions of BCA, one headed by RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and the other by Binod Kumar, have not made government a party in the petition. Bombay High Court in December 2010 held that "the present petitioner (CAB) never claimed to be successor of BCA Patna (which represented Bihar in BCCI before bifurcation) and BCA Patna has already given up its challenge to the recommendations of the committee that JSCA is the changed name of BCA (1935). It is, therefore, necessary for the petitioner to apply for an affiliate membership at the first instance and then seek promotion as an associate member and thereafter full member. The Rules and Regulations are binding and the BCCI must follow the said Rules"
BCA Timeline
Controversy
The Association of Bihar Cricket and Cricket Association of Bihar on 11 July 2012 charged the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Bihar Cricket Association of committing financial irregularities to the tune of ₹5 million, which the BCCI had granted for development of the game in the state in 2008. The Bihar government had dissolved the BCA on grounds of irregularities in December 2008.