GUWAHATI: On Friday 18 February, TMC leader and Member of Rajya Sabha from West Bengal, Sushmita Dev wrote a letter to the chief minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma bringing in focus about the match-fixing in the J K Baruah Inter-District Under 19 Cricket match.
The TMC (Trinamool Congress) leader in an explosive letter to Assam's chief minister alleged that the cricket match between the Jorhat team and NF Railway team that was organized at DSA Ground in Assam's Golaghat district was fixed.
In the letter, she further claimed the reason for match-fixing by the two teams was to betray the Silchar team.
The MP wrote that the match between the Jorhat team and NF Railway team at DSA Ground in Golaghat appears to be a clear conspiracy against the Silchar team to make it to the finals. The Silchar team were heading the points table of the match but the game completely took a different turn after some time.
She mentioned that the authorities of the tournament had initially cancelled the match when it became practically impossible for the Jorhat team to gain the victory but they had resumed it after consultation with the captain of the Jorhat team.
Soon after this Jorhat team was given a clear chance by the opponent team NF Railways to win the match easily. They allowed Jorhat to acquire a run rate that was better than the Silchar team and all these ultimately led the Jorhat team to lead in the points table.
The TMC leader went on to say that it was impossible for Jorhat to win on Day 2 when the match went into mandatory overs i.e. 11/13 was played off. Therefore the match ending was signaled by removing the stumps bails.
Dev alleged that everything was all cleared but the whole planning started as the skipper and team captain of Jorhat went towards the umpires and had some discussions with them.
The umpires then took no time to resume the match by breaking all necessary cricket rules associated with the tournament.
Dev further questions the CM that whether a match can be resumed after it is declared called off by the umpires. She states that people from the sports fraternity feel it is a clear violation of the game norms.
She also informed that the Silchar team coach who raised his voice against the match-fixing issue was later assaulted and abused.
At the end of the letter, the TMC member urges CM Sarma to intervene in the matter and investigate personally so that the spirit of cricket wins.
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