MCA-BCCI on collision course over IPL final snub

Miffed at the IPL Governing Council's sudden decision to shift the final of the ongoing T20 league from here, the Sharad Pawar-headed Mumbai Cricket Association appears set to take on the BCCI and has called for an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss the Board's snub.
"There will be a managing committee meeting of the MCA to discuss the IPL issue," MCA's media manager and treasurer Vinod Deshpande told PTI today.
Protesting the Cricket Board's move, officials of the MCA have already handed over their IPL accreditations to the tournament organisers.
The meeting is apparently being convened at short notice to decide on the future course of action with some members not willing to take things lying down over what they perceive as a slap on the face of one of BCCI's permanent Test centres.

The convening of emergency meeting of MCA's managing committee comes close on the heels of the office bearers and panel members' decision to hand over their IPL accreditations.
"We have handed over all our IPL accreditations. The office bearers of MCA, managing committee members and the volunteers connected with the tournament have done so as we are not happy that the final has been taken away without assigning proper reason," said Deshpande.

Yesterday MCA president Pawar had shot off a letter to the IPL Governing Council and all BCCI members demanding the real reason behind shifting the June 1 final from the Wankhede Stadium to Bangalore's M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

"The letter by Mr Pawar has asked for the reason for this decision by the Governing Council," Deshpande informed.
In a decision that came as a jolt for MCA, IPL's GC got involved in a teleconference and decided to allot the final to the Karnataka Cricket Association.
The May 30 Qualifier 2, however, is scheduled as per original fixture at the Wankhede Stadium, which has already hosted three home games of Mumbai Indians and is set to host two more on May 23 and 25.
The May 28 eliminator has been allotted to the Cricket Club of India's Brabourne Stadium. One top official of MCA has said that they now want all the remaining matches scheduled at the Wankhede to be shifted elsewhere.

With the stand-off between MCA and its parent body BCCI assuming serious proportions, tomorrow's managing committee meeting could decide how the state body plans to target BCCI's bigwigs.