Kolkata: Former Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) treasurer Biswarup Dey on Tuesday threatened to go on a hunger strike if actions are not taken against Satadru Dutta, who has been issued a CAB Official accreditation pass during the ensuing Indian Premier League (IPL) matches at Eden Gardens. According to Dey, the decision to issue Satadru the ‘Official’ pass has been taken keeping every member in the dark. Satadru Dutta is a Sports entrepreneur and he is professionally close to many sports celebrities like Sourav Ganguly.
But why Biswarup suddenly chose to target Satadru. It is learnt that the former CAB treasurer’s target is to malign the CAB President Sourav Ganguly, with whom he has a bitter cold relationship. He has been thrown out of CAB by Sourav. Since Satadru has been close with Ganguly in recent times; it is a deliberate ploy on the part of Dey to tarnish his image.
Satadru Dutta, it is learnt has been getting the IPL accreditation passes for the last two seasons but no one raised the issue then.
“I have been granted accreditation by IMG for the last two IPL seasons and no one objected then. But now that I am close with Sourav (Ganguly), he is resorting to this dirty politics.”
Satadru also added, “I used to get regular messages from Dey (Biswarup) till a few days back. He even invited me to be his guest for the program in Refugee. He accompanied me from Kalyani as a Chief Guest for a function organised by me. He even invited me to have lunch with him during a Ranji Trophy match in Kalyani, which was strictly meant for the CAB members. But now he is crying foul against me citing my accreditation card. Basically, it is a motivated ploy to malign Sourav.”
Meanwhile, Biswarup has sent a letter to the Joint CP Supratim Sarkar, briefing about the incident. A copy of the letter is also sent to Mr. Vinod Rai, who is the Supreme Court appointed chairman of the COA.
“I have requested Mr Vinod Rai to mention the incident in his next status report to Supreme Court. If I see no actions being taken, we will protest wearing black arm bands under the Gandhi statue on April 21.”
Biswarup also has plans to sent postcards to Vinod Rai, pleading him to restore transparency in Bengal cricket administration. As a last line of resort the former treasurer also has plans to go on a hunger strike on the day of the day of the last match of IPL at Eden Gardens.
It will be interesting to see the turnouts of events in the coming few days.