Bhubaneswar: Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) president Ranjib Biswal and secretary Asirbad Behera stepped down from their posts Wednesday following the recommendations of the Lodha committee. The move comes after the Supreme Court dismissed Anurag Thakur as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president and Ajay Shirke as its secretary.
“Respecting the Supreme Court ruling and Lodha Committee recommendations, I stepped down from the post,” Biswal told reporters. “After getting the Supreme Court’s order by mail through BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, January 2, I conducted a meeting Wednesday with all the 18 office-bearers of the OCA. We unanimously decided to hand over all the charges,” added Behera.
Meanwhile, a management committee has been formed to oversee arrangements for the second ODI between India and England scheduled to be played at the Barabati Stadium, January 19.
Cuttack MLA Debashish Samantaray, who is the chairman of the organising committee, will oversee the match preparations.
“I have been chairman of the organising committee for past several years. There is nothing new in it. I will try my best to smoothly conduct the ODI match,” informed Samantaray.
Biswal has been the president of the OCA since 2004 after hanging up his boots as a player. He asserted that the Barabati Stadium and the OCA are ready for the India-England ODI encounter. “From what I have been hearing from various sources, the ODI series may not take place. However, if the series goes on we are ready to host the game. All preparations will be completed within the next two days,” said Biswal.
Behera on his part has been secretary of the OCA since 2000. So he will also have to give up his career as a cricket administrator which has run for 16 years.
Resignation list (others)
Dulal Chandra Pradhan, Anup Kumar Patra, Adhip Das, Khitish Chandra Samantray, Saroj Kumar Sahoo, Biswajit Ghosh, Dhiren Palai, Balabhadra Patnaik, Tirupati Panigrahi, Smarapriya Mishra, Janardana Das (all vice-presidents); Shiva Prasad Tripathy, Sanjib Kumar Dutta, Satyabrata Behera, Ravishankar Pratihari (all joint secretaries) and Satya Mohanty (treasurer).
PNN
