Bombay High Court denies permission to stop the sale of tickets for ODI at Brabourne Stadium

The controversy between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) does not seem to be ending anytime soon. In the latest development, the Bombay High Court declined to interfere in the sale of tickets and advised the MCA petitioners that if need be they can go for a hearing in the Supreme Court.

“We do not intend to pass any interim order as sought by the petitioners. You (petitioners) can approach the Supreme Court if you wish to as the apex court is seized of similar matters pertaining to the MCA,” Justice Gavai said.

“What is wrong in this? The MCA does not even have a Board of Directors. The two retired judges appointed by high court to act as administrators have expressed their unwillingness to continue due to the allegations levelled against them,” the judge continued.

The MCA through its petitioners Sanjay Naik and Ravi Savant had requested the court to issue an interim order to stop the sale of tickets at the Brabourne Stadium. As the request was denied, the pleaders did not seem very pleased with the developments and said that the decision to change the venue from Wankhede to Brabourne was an illegal one as per the law.

“We were to hold the match at the Wankhede Stadium and several conditions pertaining to ticket sale, broadcasting rights was laid down (sic). We confirmed to adhere to it all. One of the conditions was to submit a hosting agreement,” Vashi said.

MCA counsel MM Vashi told the court that the BCCI had decided to change the venue of the match only because the MCA could not submit a hosting agreement.

“However, we could not submit the said agreement as it had to be signed by an administrator. At present, the MCA has no administrator,” he argued, adding that only for this reason the BCCI decided to move the match out of the Wankhede.

“The Brabourne Stadium is not equipped to host an international match. The last match played there was in 2009,” Vashi said.

It's been almost nine years since an International match at the Brabourne stadium was last played between India and Sri Lanka.