Heena Sharma Blog

Umpire Sundaram Ravi , whose no ball howler cost Royal Challengers Bangalore heavily in an IPL match and led to an angry outburst by RCB skipper Virat Kohli, is unlikely to be sanctioned due to lack of officials with international experience on the BCCI roster. Currently there are only 11 Indian Umpires allotted for on-field and TV duty for 56 IPL games, which means Ravi might get negative marking from the match referee but BCCI can hardly take any corrective measures beyond that. "Currently we have only 17 umpires assigned on-field and for third umpires' duty. Out of them 11 are Indian and six foreigners from the Elite Panel. Apart from them, we have six more Indians as fourth umpires," a member of the now defunct Umpiring sub-committee, who is privy to allocation of assignments, told PTI on Friday. Ravi, the only Indian in the ICC's Elite Panel, failed to spot an obvious no ball from Mumbai Indians' Lasith Malinga as RCB lost by six runs under controv

The Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the BCCI have not prepared any note seeking a ban on Pakistan at the upcoming World Cup and even if such a move is made, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is bound to reject it. The Pulwama terror attack, that claimed the lives of over 40 CRPF personnel, has escalated the diplomatic tensions between India and Pakistan, the reverberations of which are also being felt in the sporting arena. Already, Pakistani shooters couldn't make the World Cup in Delhi, starting Saturday, after not getting visas. And there is a demand for India to boycott its June 16 World Cup clash against the neighbours and the matter is likely to come up on the sidelines of the ICC meetings between February 27 to March 2 in Dubai. "There is absolutely no constitutional or contractual way this could happen. the ICC constitution allows members the right to participate in ICC events as long as they've qualified," a BCCI official told PTI.

BCCI CEO Rahul Johri was Wednesday cleared of sexual harassment allegations by the Committee of Administrators' three-member probe panel, which dismissed the charges levelled by at least two women as "mischievous and fabricated".  Johri was on forced leave for the past three weeks but can now resume office even though one member of the probe committee recommended "gender sensitivity counselling" for him. The two-member CoA was divided on the issue. While Chairman Vinod Rai approved of Johri joining back, Diana Edulji demanded his resignation on the basis of some recommendations, including counselling. "The allegations of sexual harassment in the office or else where are false, baseless and have been fabricated and manufactured with an ulterior motive to harm Mr. Rahul Johri...," head of the probe committee Justice (Retd) Rakesh Sharma stated in his findings. The three-member probe panel also comprised former Delhi Commission