Guwahati, Nov 7 : The Gauhati High Court Wednesday directed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to frame guidelines and norms for selection of cities for IPL franchises and to put it on the BCCI website within three months.
The direction came after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) sought a direction to include Guwahati as one of the cities for an IPL team.
BCCI counsel also filed an affidavit before the high court Wednesday justifying its move not to include Guwahati as one of the cities for an IPL team.
The high court had Oct 25 restrained the BCCI from “taking a final decision” on the tender floated Oct 14 for selection of new teams for the 2013 IPL tourney.
The court also sought a response from the central government, the BCCI and the Assam Cricket Association on the PIL filed by Ghisa Lal Agarwal. He challenged the non-inclusion of any team from Guwahati in the 12 teams shortlisted for participating in the bids.
Senior advocate Ashok Saraf, who pleaded on behalf of the petitioner, submitted that non-inclusion of Guwahati as one of the cities for the IPL team is discriminatory in as much as Guwahati has an international cricket stadium and better infrastructure than the other cities as named in the tender notice.
“We submitted to the court that the BCCI had not laid down any parameters and norms for selecting the cities for the IPL franchises,” said Saraf.
He said BCCI counsel Nilay Dutta submitted to the court that Guwahati was not considered as a venue for the IPL matches as the Nehru Stadium here is very old and is not being used for cricket alone.
“BCCI counsel also submitted that the two galleries of the Nehru Stadium are in a dilapidated condition with every likelihood of causing injury to spectators when packed to capacity,” Saraf said.
He added that security was also a concern listed in the BCCI's affidavit.
Saraf said that the security in Guwahati is much better than in Ranchi, which has been considered for IPL matches.
