NEW DELHI
The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) has hit the headlines again for the wrong reasons after an audio clip demanding a bribe for Under-19 selection in the UPCA went viral.
A person can be heard asking the player’s relative to give Rs 6 lakh in the name of hosting a trial match, granting him to play for at least two matches.
It is not the first time that the UPCA has been in controversy. In the past too, there has been controversy over its selection process, as this kind of allegation is not new for the UPCA. In 2003, when the much-publicised Abhijeet Kale-Kiran selection-for-bribe issue hit the headlines, the selection process in the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association was rocked by serious charges against Gopal Sharma, Sashikant Khandekar, and Fasahat Ali.
That issue was aggravated by over a dozen young cricketers blaming the UPCA selection committee members in writing and persuading then BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya. Later, the issue was somehow “settled” by the UPCA think tank. The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) itself came forward to give a clean chit to the selectors.
Even in 2022, 15 players came forward. They filed PIL and also sought the appointment of an agency to audit the accounts of UPCA to unearth the alleged “misuse of funds for personal gains by directors/UPCA and their henchmen”. Finally, the Delhi High Court intervened and issued notice to the Centre, the UP government, the BCCI, and others on a public interest litigation seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) probe into the functioning of the UPCA and the appointment of an administrator in its place till the holding of “fair elections,”, but nothing came after that.
So, when this audio went viral, The Sunday Guardian tried to get in contact with cricketers, and some came forward. A cricketer said, “If you don’t come from an affluent section of society, you have no right to play cricket under UPCA because here your game doesn’t decide your future, but your father’s back balance.”