Corruption allegations levelled against Vijay Hazare side

The Vijay Hazare Trophy kicked off a few days ago and the team from Puducherry got off to a blistering start as they thrashed newcomers Manipur in their first match of the tournament.

They achieved an easy eight-wicket victory of the side from North-East. However, a few controversies have arisen from the match.

The BCCI and the CoA have received multiple complaints regarding Puducherry's team selection. According to reports, Puducherry fielded a higher number of outstation players than allowed. The complaint raised by the convenor of Uttarakhand cricket also stated that none of the players in the playing XI was born in the Union Territory.

“I was shocked to hear that BCCI has given special permission to include more than the (cap on the) number of outstation players in the team. This kills the spirit of the game and the rules of level playing field that was aimed when the eligibility rules were framed,” Shetty writes in his email, which was accessed by The Indian Express. The email was addressed to the BCCI and CoA.

The second complaint raised was whether Puducherry fulfilled the “qualification rules” for being registered as a “guest player”. According to the emails, a few players from the side were either based in Mumbai or Tamil Nadu.

“The above details clearly indicate that the entire eleven of Team Puducherry does not contain a single player of Puducherry origin and it’s very obvious that in the name of promotion players from all other states have been given a chance thus denying the local players of Puducherry any opportunity. If you look at the North Eastern states, it is very apparent that they have mostly abided with the BCCI Rules,” the email read.

However, Puducherry responded to the allegations raised by stating that all the players apart from Abhishek Nayar, Pankaj Singh and Paras Dogra had links to the Union Territory through work or education.