Brijesh Patel flays BCCI

Karnataka State Cricket Association secretary and former Test player Brijesh Patel assailed the Board of Control for Cricket in India regime, saying it lacks transparency.

"They only talk of transparency. I don't know what kind of transparency they are talking of, because this is absent in their actions," he told newspersons in Kolkata on Thursday.

Patel, a former chairman of the senior selection panel, said there was no response from the Sharad Pawar-led Board when he asked for the report of a review committee.

"They didn't even acknowledge my missive," he said.

"Had they been transparent, then they would have made public the facts pertaining to the court case against Mr Dalmiya, including the knocks they got from the Bombay High Court," Patel said, on the sidelines of a function.

Asked whether the BCCI is on a witch-hunt against Dalmiya, he replied: "Of course, they are."

Patel also refused to buy the argument that the new BCCI set-up has succeeded in generating substantially more revenue than the Dalmiya-led body.

"Ask anyone the price of a house he had bought years back. The price must have increased several times in the intervening period," he said, suggesting the present Board is only reaping the fruits of the earlier regime's labour.

Expressing dismay over the repeated exclusion of former captain Sourav Ganguly from the national squad, Patel said, "He has got a raw deal. A player of his stature, who has scored so many runs in both forms of the game, deserves proper chances and an honourable exit."

He also charged coach Greg Chappell with having a mind block on Ganguly.

"He is doing a good job, except the mind block he has over Ganguly," he said.

Praising the left-handed batsman, Patel said he deserved to be in the Indian team for the series against the West Indies.

"I feel even if Sachin Tendulkar was available, Ganguly should have been included," he replied, when asked if the Indian team would have benefited from Ganguly's experience in the absence of the little master.

Patel felt the BCCI had not worked for improving the National Cricket Academy in the past year. "What the present officials have done is nothing new. They have only moved coaches from the north to south and vice-versa."

However, he said the NCA had been a success story during the five years of its existence.

"See the number of players who have come up from the NCA. (Irfan) Pathan, Parthiv (Patel), (Suresh) Raina, R P (Singh) are all NCA products."

Patel, a Dalmiya loyalist, was NCA director during the previous BCCI regime, but was removed from the post after the change of guard.