Vadodara: It is a historic cricket ground dubbed the cradle of cricket in the city as it has produced greats such as Kiran More, Nayan Mongia, Anshuman Gaekwad, the Pathan brothers and the Pandya brothers. But Motibaug Cricket Ground, owned by the Gaekwad royals, is set to be disowned by Baroda Cricket Association (BCA). The association plans to cancel the affiliation of the Motibaug Ground and stop holding official matches there.The BCA caretaker body recently took the decision to cancel Motibaug Club’s affiliation and participation in BCA tournaments across formats. The reason cited was Motibaug Club’s alleged refusal to make the ground available for the BCA matches on several occasions.While BCA officially sent minutes of the caretaker body’s meeting mentioning the cancellation of Motibaug’s affiliation, association (in-charge) secretary Ajit Lele said it was an ‘error’ and the affiliation hasn’t been cancelled. “We have just stopped maintenance of the Motibaug Cricket Ground as they were not following the MOU. According to the understanding, BCA needs the cricket ground on 100 days for practice and 100 days for matches every year. We hardly got the ground for 50 to 60 days in total from the Motibaug management,” Lele told TOI.Lele added that BCA spent lakhs on maintaining the Motibaug ground, much more than other grounds. “Our players were also not allotted any of the 20 practice pitches despite the BCA maintaining them,” Lele added. He further said that the Motibaug management isn’t releasing machines owned by BCA that are kept at the ground.Jay Gaekwad, who is in charge of the Motibaug Cricket Club , said, “The BCA never officially notified us about their issues with playing days or not being given practice pitches. We learned last month that the association has stopped maintaining Motibaug Ground. I have no idea why they decided to cancel the affiliation of a ground with such a rich legacy.”From cricketing greats like Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar to Saurav Ganguly, many India players have played at Motibaug Ground. While hundreds of first-class matches have been played on Motibaug Ground, in the 1980s, this picturesque ground also hosted three one-day international matches. It may be noted that the group led by royal scion Samarjitsinh Gaekwad recently contested BCA polls against the panel headed by association president Pranav Amin.
