No notice to MCA or Ganguly, says Lele....
Dharmendra Jore

MUMBAI, March: Honourary Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Jayawant Lele, on Thursday denied that no explaination has been sought from the Mumbai Criket Association (MCA), and Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly was not reprimanded over the issue of `picth tampering' before the start of the first Test against Australia at the Wankhede Stadium here last month.

``Who told you this? It's all baseless,'' Lele told òf40óThe Indian Express at the BCCI office after his arrival from Pune this afternoon.

Lele said that the report which appeared in a section of the local Press (not The Indian Express) was not true. ``There are no inquiries being conducted against MCA or it's curator Nadeem Memon.''

Lele further denied that BCCI was planning to take action against skipper Saurav Ganguly for putting extreme pressure on the MCA curator to shave off the grass and prepare a spinner-friendly track for the first Test.

The report in an English daily said that BCCI's pitch committee headed by G Kasturirangan has reported to the board president AC Muthiah and secretary that Ganguly had `tampered' with the Wankhede track.

``First of all, we haven't received anything from the pitch committee. Ganguly hasn't been reprimanded or served notice,'' Lele added.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.