The Vadodara district court has issued notices to the president and six other officials of the Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) for giving free tickets to ordinary members for the Australia-India One-Day International (ODI) scheduled on October 25. The court will hear the case on Monday.

BCA president Chirayu Amin, vice-president Samarjit Singh Gaekwad and other officials including Sanjay Patel, secretary Snehal Parikh, Sachin Dalvi and treasurer Arun Gandhi have been named in the petition.

Sources said the BCA has a total of 1,575 members. As per the rules, the members have to renew their membership every year. Some of these members have not renewed their annual membership. So, the higher officials should not have issued the free tickets to these members, the petition stated.

Vivek Dongre, a BCA member, said: “How can BCA issue free tickets to non-members? Since the ordinary members have not renewed their membership there is no question of giving them free tickets. This is a loss for the BCA, which earns revenue from tickets.”

The petition has also asked the BCA to come up with the total number of members, membership fee and the details of renewal of membership between 2003 and 2009 on Monday.

For becoming a member of the BCA, a person has to pay admission and membership fee for ordinary membership. If any of these is not paid within a stipulated period, the membership stands cancelled. In 2002-03, the total membership was 702 and another 1,000 ordinary members were added. However, around 1,094 members have not renewed their membership, sources said.

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