Guwahati: The U-19 cricket team of NF Railway Sports Association (NFRSA) suffered a body blow as the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) imposed a ban on the team as well as its captain and coach-cum-manager for their actions during a cricket match. The ACA felt that the behaviour of the team on the ground was against the spirit of cricket.
The incident occurred during the JK Barooah Cricket tie between Jorhat and NFRSA held in Golaghat recently. Jorhat scored around 40 runs in the first 11 of their 13 mandatory overs and later added another 38 runs in the final two overs. The performance helped Jorhat to better the net run rate and entered the final pushing Silchar out of the contest.
Silchar, after the game, complained to the ACA and alleged that the match was fixed. It was also alleged that umpires called off the match after 11th overs, but returned to the ground later to complete the remaining part of the game (last two overs).
The ACA, after receiving the complaint, instituted an enquiry committee to look into the match-fixing allegation. The Apex Council of the association also met with the coach, the captain and the managers of all three teams along with the umpires on Wednesday and recorded their statements.
Addressing media on Thursday, ACA secretary Devajit Saikia said, "The match-fixing accusation was rejected as Silchar didn't have any objection till the last 2 overs of the match. The possibility of any kind of fixing in the last 2 overs has been ruled out. Further, two different and opposite positions were taken by the captains of the Jorhat and NFR Teams regarding calling off the match after the 11th mandatory over, and as such, the disagreement between the two teams was crystal clear and so umpires again started the game . However, it was informed that as the NFR Team was found guilty of deliberately underperforming in the last two overs for reasons best known to them, the NFR (U-19) team was debarred from participating in any ACA or ACA-recognised tournament for the next 3 years."
He also added: "It was quite evident from the findings that the Jorhat team was in no way responsible for the said underperformance. Also, since the role of the NFR (U-19) Team's coach and the captain were found to be against the game and the spirit of cricket, manager-cum-coach of NFR (U-19) Satyabrata Chakraborty has been banned from taking part in any cricket activities under the ACA for life, and captain of NFR (U-19) Ronit Akhter has similarly been banned from any cricket activities under the ACA for the next 3 years."
The media briefing was also attended by ACA president Roman Dutta and several other members of the Apex Council.
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