PANAJI
Goa Cricket Association (GCA) is back in the news. And what better than to expect the now too familiar dose of misappropriation of BCCI funds by the committee members for their avaricious gains.
Talking exclusively to The Goan, Shirish Naik, ex General Secretary, GCA (1980-86) -- who is also a life member of the cricket body -- revealed that 68 of the 106 clubs affiliated to the GCA have resolved to approach the Supreme Court to file a criminal petition against Dayanand Narvekar, Vinod Phadke, Chetan Desai, Shekhar Salkar and others for misappropriation of funds given by the BCCI.
Naik says that from 2001 to 2016 BCCI released Rs 234 crores to the GCA but around Rs 120 crores has been laundered by these office bearers in the stated period. The clubs have demanded a CBI enquiry into the alleged scams to "root out the malaise stunting the growth of the game in the State".
Shirish going back in time stated that during the tenure of Ramesh Chowgule as President, GCA and Prashant joshi as Vice President with four others in the committee back in 1980-86, GCA got recognition at the Ranji level in 1984 due to their hard-work. With Prashant Joshi at the helm from 1987-1999, the Association was doing well and moving up.
But according to him, the free-fall for the association began under Dayanand Narvekar's regime. With Narvekar as President and Balu Phadke as Secretary, the Ticket Gate scam surfaced. "The Association began to deteriorate with selection of players not done on merit. Narvekar's son, Ganeshraj, was selected in age-group level teams through forged birth certificates," Naik said.
Naik pointed out that there were differences within the administration emerged with no one taken into confidence and the performance graph went spiralling downwards. An emergency General Body Meeting was held to freeze the GCA membership of the incumbent Narvekar for six years. "From 2001-09, there was blatant misuse of BCCI funds. From purchasing land at Sanguem at Rs 9 crore to purchase of equipment for the gymnasium, electronic scoreboard and construction of the stadium in Porvorim wherein at least another 10 crores were laundered," Naik claimed.
After the removal of Narvekar, Phadke took charge with Desai as General Secretary. All appeared smooth for around three years, until another can of worms was opened. Land at Maulingem, Bicholim ad-measuring 2.90 lakh sq mtrs was bought for the construction of an international stadium.
"The land was not in a settlement zone and was an orchard which was not supposed to be purchased. Also it had no road access. While the value of the plot was estimated at Rs. 300 per sq mtrs (Sale Deed - 15/10/14) it was purchased after two years at Rs. 1200 sq mtrs, a clear misappropriation of Rs. 25 crores," Naik estimated.
Besides this, Naik said two bank accounts were opened, at Shiroda Credit Society, Ponda and Federal Bank, Panaji, which were used for misappropriation of funds amounting to Rs. 3 crores and 1.5 crores respectively. Naik stated that their representative, Arun Naik (Life Member, GCA) met BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and COA member Diana Edulji in mid-July appraising to them about the fraud. Naik says their main aim is to "clean up the mess at GCA" and promote the talent which has been neglected. He said due to lack of appropriate facilities, cricket at the school level is not coming up.
