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Cricket to be banished from Eden Gardens?

Drastic as it sounds, the Cricket Association of Bengal is planning to refuse the honour of staging any international cricket engagements, of the Test or ODI variety, for the foreseeable future.

CAB president Jagmohan Dalmiya indicated that the association was more than miffed over the disputes concerning the staging of the Wills World Cup semifinals last year. The dispute has now been referred to an investigative committee, and a report is awaited.

Adding salt to the wounds of the CAB, apparently, is the fact that during the recently completed Independence Cup, the state police demanded that they be paid for providing security cover for the Sri Lanka-Pakistan final at the Eden Gardens. The Calcutta police had, it will be recalled, billed the CAB to the tune of Rs 1.13 million as security charges, arguing that since the event was going to rake in millions, there was no reason for the CAB to expect security cover for free.

The police had demanded that the entire sum be paid before the game. The CAB however failed to do so and the police force, under mediation from the government, agreed to spare the country an international embarassment and provided the sought for security cover, on the proviso that the cricket body would pay the dues immediately after the tournament.

Commissioner of Police Dinesh Vajpayee, last week, dashed off a letter to the CAB demanding that the money to be paid immediately, pointing out that 5,000 policemen had been placed on special duty for the duration of the day-night Independence Cup final. Vajpayee pointed out that commercial organisations and industries had been paying the police for security cover, and there was no reason why the CAB could not follow suit.

Vajpayee pointed out that the amount had been computed on the basis of one day's salary of each of the policemen involved in providing the security cover for the match, and asked that the full amount be paid over to the Reserve Bank, and from thence to the state government.

Dalmiya for his part has argued that as sport is exempted from entertainment/amusement tax, the police have no business demanding such high dues. Dalmiya claimed that if the police demands were to be met, the CAB would have to double ticket rates.

CAB officials point out that if the precedent of paying for security was set, then a situation would arise where, for a Test match spanning five days, the security charges could cross the Rs six million mark - a sum that would have to be added on to the ticket charges, making them unaffordable for the majority of spectators.

An estimated 86,000 people had watched the day-night Independence Cup final at the Eden Gardens between Sri Lanka and Pakistan late last month.