Nearly a month before the Indian Premier League gets kicked off, the Sawai Mansingh Stadium and the Rajasthan Cricket Association's office have been sealed by the Rajasthan Sports Council. The Sports Council claimed that the state cricket body did not fulfil its liabilities, which included payment of dues.
Apart from the stadium, the RCA office and its academy have also been sealed. The Rajasthan Sports Council secretary Sohan Ram Choudhary served a notice to the RCA to hand over the property but that did not happen. Due to that, the state sports council sealed the properties due to RCA's alleged failure to stand on the conditions as per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and non-payment of dues.
“We had sent them (RCA) numerous notices but there was no reply from their end. They only replied to increase the MoU to 10 years (from eight years). They had liabilities and they did not fulfil them,” Choudhary told the media.
He said that they sat with the RCA to find a solution but had to take this step. “We have sat down with RCA to find a solution. They received approximately Rs 200 crores but told us that they haven't received the sum.
They had a lot of money during the Rajasthan Premier League but they did not adhere to the MoU and did not deposit the money, that's why we had to take this step,” he added.
However, he assured that the act won't stop the IPL matches and the International games to be held at the venue. "This is our premise and we just took it back. The IPL matches will happen and all other national and international matches will also happen and the players will get all the facilities," he added.
RCA president alleges the act is smacked by politics
The Rajasthan Cricket Association president Vaibhav Gehlot has alleged that the act of sealing these premises is smacked by politics. “The pending dues are old one, Rs 8 crore is outstanding but suddenly sealing (because of) that old case and that too before the IPL shows political malice. This should not have happened," Gehlot said.
"We were not given full time, the time given was less than two days, there should not be politics in sports but politics is happening which is not right,” he added. He added that the RCA will talk to its lawyers about what steps it would take.
The IPL body released a partial schedule of the tournament. It released the schedule for the first two weeks, which will feature 21 matches. The Sawai Mansingh Stadium is scheduled to host the Rajasthan Royals season opener against Lucknow Super Giants on March 24. It will also be hosting the clash against Delhi Capitals on March 28.
