Goa cricket chief fined, faces FIR for forgery

PANAJI - The Goa Cricket Association has been fined Rs.5,000 for fielding its chief Dayanand Narvekar’s son in its under-15 team in violation of rules and that too on the basis of a forged birth certificate, according to documents available here.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty in his letter to the GCA in 2008 has clearly indicted the association and its president Narvekar for illegally fielding his son Ganeshraj Narvekar in an under-15 state level category, but has let them off with a fine of Rs.5,000.

“We are surprised to see that you have allowed Ganeshraj Narvekar to play in the under-15 tournament in the season of 2007-08 under the name of Anish N. This is a clear violation of our rules and calls for punitive action,” says Shetty’s letter written April 25, 2008, a copy of which is available with IANS.

On Friday, GCA member Shekhar Salkar filed a first information report (FIR) against Narvekar, his wife Sushma, son Ganeshraj and Dr. Ravindra Chodankar, accusing them of cheating and forging Ganeshraj’s birth certificate to enable him to play as Anish N. for the state in the under-15 category.

Shetty’s letter explains that under BCCI norms, an under-15 category player is allowed to play only for two years and points out that Narvekar’s son Ganeshraj had already played twice in the under-15 tourneys in 2006-07 and 2007-08. Narvekar is also the former vice president of the BCCI.

“The GCA always submits the registration forms late and hence, such violations are not detected on time. You will recollect that even the working committee had expressed displeasure on this. Your association will have to pay a fine of Rs.5,000 for the lapse,” Shetty has said in the letter addressed to GCA secretary Chetan Desai.

Dayanand Narvekar is a sitting Congress legislator from the Aldona constituency and has been the deputy chief minister of the state. He is also one of the main accused in a multi-million-rupee fake ticket scam for an India-Australia One-day International match in 2001.

In his FIR Friday, Dr. Salkar has alleged that Ganeshraj, who played for Goa from 2005 to 2007 for the south zone in the under-15 category, was “allowed” to play in the third year too after forging the certificate and changing his name from Ganeshraj to Anish, which was his nickname, and changing his age.

“The original certificate says that the boy’s birth date is Feb 28, 1993, while the forged certificate shows his birthday as Sep 1, 1993,” Dr. Salkar said, adding that the birth certificate had been forged four times.

The FIR has been filed under sections 420 (cheating), 471 (forgery) and 120 (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

“Of course, the BCCI officials in office then are responsible for the mess. Even after spotting the forgery, they only let Narvekar off with a Rs.5,000 fine. They should have taken criminal action. They have deprived other budding cricketers from Goa of legitimate opportunities,” Salkar said.

Yet another forged document, which the police are tracking down, is a forged birth certificate issued by a hospital owned by Narvekar’s kin Ravindra Chodankar.

Narvekar was not available for comment despite repeated efforts.