Vadodara:
Alembic Cricket Academy, one of the prestigious cricket teams in the city, won’t be playing in Baroda Cricket Association’s (BCA) premier league this year. The team has withdrawn from the tournament and it may not play in the BCA’s official cricket tourneys in future. The Darshanam team too won’t be playing the premier league that will host 16 teams.
BCA officials said the conflict of interest issue that is one of the key recommendations of Lodha Committee led to Alembic’s withdrawal. “Alembic Pharmaceutical Ltd (APL) managing director Pranav Amin is member of the BCA managing committee that takes all the key decisions. Having their team in the BCA creates conflict of interest. So Alembic team has withdrawn,” a BCA official said.
Amin too had said earlier that they had approached the BCA to seek withdrawal of their team due to conflict of interest. Also, one of the Alembic company’s employees is a selector in junior cricket. The managing committee had discussed the issue two weeks ago, but no decision was taken. “Darshanam had played the premier league in last season but this time we decided that new teams should start playing from junior level cricket. So they too have withdrawn their team from the league,” the official added.
Alembic and Darshanam cricketers may join other teams. Performance of cricketers in the premier league is one of the criteria for selection for Ranji team.
