Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) on Sunday decided to lift the ban on Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's ent... Read More

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) ended Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan 's five-year ban on entering the Wankhede Stadium, in a Managing Committee meeting on Sunday. TOI had reported in its August 2 (Sunday) edition that the MCA was in a mood to take this step, which will be a massive relief for not just the charismatic Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner, but the Board of control for Cricket in India ( BCCI ) and IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla too.

Recently, Shah Rukh had reason to rejoice when his team Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel clinched the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) title. With this news coming as the icing on the cake, the 49-year-old would surely be in a mood to throw a party. Khan was banned from entering the Wankhede in May 2012 for five years after a scuffle and heated altercation with a security guard and the MCA officials following an IPL game in which KKR beat the Mumbai Indians. Ahead of its Managing Committee meeting on Sunday, however, a certain section in the MCA wanted that the ban, which was supposed to end in 2017, to be lifted a couple of years earlier itself, since SRK has already served a substantial period of it (three years) 'respectfully' without trying to enter the stadium at any stage.

The MCA had offered to temporarily lift the ban on Shah Rukh last year, in what was a failed attempt at bringing back the IPL final from Bangalore to Mumbai. That offer, however, was just for the final. This time, however, the ban has been consigned to history for good.

"It has already been three years since we banned him. The managing committee unanimously felt that his ban should be lifted. Shah Rukh is now most welcome to come and watch matches at the Wankhede Stadium," MCA jt secretary PV Shetty told TOI on Sunday. The MCA's decision should be music to the years of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla too, since Shah Rukh, besides being an IPL team owner, is also a popular face of the league.

No appeal for Ankeet

The MCA has, meanwhile, turned down Ankeet Chavan's request to appeal to the BCCI on his behalf about removing the life ban imposed on him despite the left-arm spinner getting a clean chit by the Patial House Court in Delhi. Chavan had written a letter to the MCA asking for help for the ban on him, slapped by the BCCI in 2013 after he was embroiled in the spot fixing scandal in the IPL, be lifted, but the association expressed its helplessness on the issue. "We will abide by the BCCI's decision, since it is our parent body," said Shetty. "We will have to go as per the BCCI's guidelines in this regard. He may have escaped criminal charges alleged on him by the Delhi Police, but the BCCI maintains that he has broken its code of conduct," he added.

BCCI office set to move to BKC

The MCA has decided to allot the BCCI space for a new office in its BKC facility. The Board office will thus move from its present location in the Wankhede Stadium in Churchgate to BKC. Quite a few BCCI officials had wanted the shift since BKC is much closer to the airport than Churchgate. The MCA has also decided to install floodlights at its ground in BKC. It will also renovate the president's box at the Wankhede Stadium. "We will extend it to give the spectators' on that box an open-air experience. Up till now, it's just an AC box," said an official.

In another development, the MCA had decided to give NOC (No-Objection Certificate) to veteran opener Wasim Jaffer, who will play for Vidarbha in the forthcoming season. A few MCA officials were sentimental about teenaged batsman Sarfaraz Khan's sudden decision to shift to Uttar Pradesh, since the youngster has developed his game on Mumbai's maidans, but then it was felt that moving to play for another team in domestic cricket was an individual choice.

Meanwhile, the Kanga League, which was postponed by a week, is set to begin on August 8. The monsoon tournament, scheduled to begin on August 2, was delayed after a couple of the clubs lodged protests over the promotion-relegation system last year. On Sunday, however, the MCA formed a special three-member committee, comprising former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar (currently MCA vice-prsident), Vinod Deshpande and Shetty, to sort out the issue on the day itself.

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