It is understood that rising objections from several state associations resulted in the BCCI taking a firm decision
Puducherry skipper Abhiskek Nayar
The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) yesterday decided to take away the special allowance granted to Puducherry for their inaugural season in domestic cricket after the debutants fielded all outstation players for their Vijay Hazare Trophy opener against Manipur. The opposition team suffered a crushing eight-wicket defeat in Baroda.
It is understood that rising objections from several state associations resulted in the BCCI taking a firm decision. The BCCI yesterday informed the Cricket Association of Pondicherry (CAP) to pick only those players in the playing XI who were registered before August 2017.
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As a result, nine players who were part of Puducherry's opening clash were told to return home with immediate effect. Three of those players — Sagar Trivedi, Shashank Singh and Sagar Udeshi — are from Mumbai. Trivedi (3-47) and Udeshi (4-20) shared seven wickets between them against Manipur. The team are led by veteran Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar, who is one of the three professionals playing for Puducherry along with Pankaj Singh and Paras Dogra.
Puducherry was the only team out of the nine new outfits to be accorded special allowance by the CoA. Though the CAP received affiliation from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in October last year, they were inducted only last month. As per BCCI norms, a player who is born, or is studying in the state for over a year or is employed in the state for over a year is eligible to play for the state cricket team. However, special allowance was permitted to Puducherry to register those players who have been employed or studying in the Union Territory since August this year due to time crunch.
There were objections raised after Puducherry's superlative show in the opening match and also the need to have a level-playing field. Puducherry have been allowed to have nine replacements in their team and those players were expected to reach late last night. Puducherry will take on Uttarakhand today in their second match of the Plate group at Anand, Gujarat.
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