Sandeep Sarkar, Kolkata: Saurashis Lahiri, Arindam Dasra after being sacked as coach of various age groups of Bengal complained that CAB officials did not get time to sit in review meetings despite repeated requests. But those CAB officials are sitting every evening to write statements. In view of various complaints. And even so, Sourav Ganguly’s CAB is eating one suicide goal! The question is raised from within the CAB.

There were serious allegations against CAB like forgetting to invite son Pranab Roy on Pankaj Roy’s birthday or commemorating the legend with stale flowers. Pranab Roy himself said that he was not called. But in Ahmedabad IPL Sourav Gangopadhyay made a statement while watching the final. He informed that Pranab Roy was invited. Sourav said the allegation of using ‘stale flowers’ was also a planned attempt to smear ink. Without walking the path of an internal investigation. Later, Pranab Roy wrote to CAB Secretary Bablu Kole asking to see the CCTV footage in the ‘Baasi Phool’ case. Didn’t get an answer. A part of the CAB says that the Bengal cricket governing body will burn if the CCTV footage is published! Hence the silence.

Read more: Legal letter against Sourav-close CAB boss, ‘what I did was for the sake of cricket’, says Surjeet

Former Trinamool Congress MLA Sujoy Hazra, who lost this election, was arrested on Saturday. Who is the Chairman of District Coaching Committee of CAB. It was then that Midnipur District Sports Association Secretary Sanjit Torai alleged that Sujoy Hazra removed him for political influence in the annual general meeting.

Sanjit Torai told ABB Live Bangla, ‘Last time in our meeting before the Annual General Meeting of CAB, it was decided that I will represent the Midnipur District Sports Association. Fill up the form like that and send it to CAB through the representative at the appointed time. But the head clerk of CAB refused to take it. My representative was returned. Then we met again. Sujoy Hazra said there, the then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Sujoy will go to CAB AGM, not me. I am forced to come back.’

Dismissing the allegation, the CAB issued a counter statement late on Sunday saying that Sanjit Torai had said these words with the intention of maligning the organization. A warning of legal action was also issued against him. But while making that statement, CAB accepted Sanjit Torai’s complaint. Sanjith’s complaint was that although he had sent his nomination to be represented in the Annual General Meeting by proxy, the Head Clerk of CAB had not submitted it. “Mr. Torai sent a representative on September 4 to the CAB headquarters to submit Appendix A (representation and nomination form),” the CAB said in a statement. However, the form was incomplete as it did not contain the letter of undertaking for the meeting of the Executive Committee of Midnipur District Cricket Association, where he would be sent as a representative to the Annual General Meeting. The office worker of CAB responsible for receiving and verifying the submission of documents informed the Electoral Officer before submitting it to Mr. Torai and said what documents are missing. Torai assured to submit that paper soon. Then on September 9, the Midnipur District Cricket Association submitted the complete Appendix and it contained a new undertaking, in which Sujoy Hazra was asked to be the representative.’

The uproar started with that statement of CAB. Because, CAB has admitted that CAB clerks verified the nomination papers before submitting them to the Electoral Officer. But is there anyone other than the Electoral Officer to verify the nomination papers? Controversy surrounds the question of under what rules CAB head clerk Vishwapati Sen verified the paper. It is said that the work of CAB office workers is only to submit the form and send it to the electoral officer. How do office workers see that form?

CAB Electoral Officer Sushant Ranjan Upadhyay. According to the revised constitution of the Indian Cricket Board and all state cricket bodies recommended by the Lodha Committee under the supervision of the Supreme Court, the Electoral Officer is the one and only to scrutinize all the nominations and publish the final list. How did the CAB staff verify the documents? This is Supreme CourtWho is involved in showing the thumb? A section of CAB is raising questions.

CAB treasurer Sanjay Das said, ‘If the CAB head clerk has verified the documents, I don’t see anything wrong in it. Because he has a long experience. If you see any document missing in any nomination, you can tell the members. At least the Electoral Officer will not cancel the nomination. This may have been done in the interests of the members. If the Electoral Officer cancels the incomplete nomination, no one may be represented in that district. So it may have been done keeping in mind the larger interests of the members.’

But does verification of nomination documents fall within the purview of the Head Clerk? The CAB treasurer says, ‘When we go to eat at a restaurant, many times the waiter says, try this dish with this dish. Or, going into two chicken dishes, try this one. Do we question whether that falls within the waiter’s jurisdiction or not!’ He added, ‘But I was not in office at that time. The officers of that time can tell exactly what happened.’

Amlendu Biswas was the Vice President of CAB till the 2025 Annual General Meeting. He said, ‘According to Article 62 (2) of the CAB constitution, it is the responsibility of the electoral officer to monitor and supervise the entire election process. He is the one who announced the date of election. Scrutiny of nomination papers was scheduled to take place on September 15 from 11 am to 3 pm before the 2025 Annual General Meeting. The final list was to be published on September 19. I don’t know how anyone other than the Electoral Officer can verify the documents!’

The questions are directed towards the present administrators of CAB. Maidan waits to see what statement Sourav’s CAB makes again.