“We have no option other than to call off the India-New Zealand series as our banks have decided to freeze BCCI accounts. How can we function, how can we hold any games now? Who will make the payment?," said a senior board official. According to Cricbuzz, other home series with Australia, Bangladesh and England may also face a similar fate.
Justice Lodha, however, said that the BCCI's "routine expenses" have not been curtailed at all, and that the banks were only told to confine large disbursements to state bodies only. Lodha added that the banks were not told to "freeze" accounts and that that was a misinterpretation of their order, ANI reported on Tuesday. He said there was "no question" of cancelling any series.
On Monday, the Supreme Court-appointed committee asked banks to stop disbursing funds for financial decisions made by the BCCI. The committee said that as per its directive, the board was not supposed to make any decision on issues apart from “routine matters”. “The disbursement of these amounts are not routine,” said the letter issued by the panel. While the Bank of Maharashtra froze the BCCI account on Monday, Yes Bank has not made its decision yet, reported The Times of India.
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