By IANS,
Panaji : Goa Cricket Association (GCA) president and former finance minister Dayanand Narvekar Tuesday said demands by real estate developers for payment of crores of rupees in “black money” had set back his plans for having an international cricket stadium in the state.
Narvekar told reporters that the association’s dream of buying land to construct a state-of-the-art stadium exclusively for cricket was marred by outrageous demands for payment in black money by Goa’s real estate “sharks”.
“The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has allocated a budget of Rs.50 crore (Rs.500 million) for a private stadium. But we face outrageous demands by parties, who ask for 25 to 30 per cent of the payment in black. The GCA certainly cannot afford that,” he said, adding that the GCA had narrowed down on two sites at Sancoale in South Goa and Bardez in North Goa.
Narvekar said that they were forced to look out for a private sports stadium because the state government had been stalling efforts made by the GCA to build a cricket facility on the collaboration model.
“All over the country, it is the state government which acquires the land for the cricket association. In our case, almost all the formalities have been completed. The site for the stadium has been identified, the required permissions have been taken and yet the state government has not been handing over the land to us for the last 10 months,” he said.
Narvekar said that BCCI had already directed all state cricket associations to build their own stadiums by 2009, failing which no international cricket matches would be allotted to them. “If we do not come up with a stadium, Goa will not get to host any more international matches.
“It will be a long wait,” he said, adding that the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium at Fatorda, which is being currently used by the GCA to host one day international cricket matches, was no longer adequate for the purpose.