Guwahati, July 6: BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur today assured former cricketers Gautam Dutta and Kamakhya Saikia that he would take a personal initiative to develop cricket in Assam.
Former first class player Dutta, who is also an NCA Level II coach, said he met Thakur along with Saikia on the sidelines of a BJP convention in Dibrugarh today and discussed the plight of cricket in the state.
"We requested him to take steps towards development of the sport in our state. He assured us that the BCCI would take necessary steps and expected the Assam Cricket Association, too, to play its role. He said it should always be a joint effort to usher in development," Dutta told The Telegraph over phone from Dibrugarh. "Since there were many people waiting to speak with him, he took my cell number and said he had many things to discuss regarding cricket in Assam," Dutta said.
Dutta, however, said that they did not discuss the recent allegations of irregularities in the ACA and the legal impasse. "Since we have got nothing to do with the alleged irregularities, which is sub-judice, we did not discuss anything in this regard. All we are concerned about is the development of the sport. Albeit tall claims of the ACA, we have achieved nothing in many years," he said.
Asked what made them discuss matters with the BCCI secretary instead of the ACA, Dutta said, "We have placed our views and opinion before the ACA many times when we were asked, only to be insulted as any suggestion we offered was not implemented. If our suggestions are sought, at least some initiatives should be taken to implement some of them. All our views are kept recorded only on paper and we have never seen a single step being taken to execute them."
The Union sports ministry has also forwarded a petition by some former cricketers to the BCCI chief administrative officer with a note to institute a probe into alleged "money laundering and other gross violations" in the ACA.
This is the first time Thakur is visiting Assam since he became the BCCI secretary earlier this year.
