SRK in spat with MCA officials, confusion over ban

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Kolkata Knight Riders' co-owner and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was on Thursday banned for life from Wankhede Stadium after getting into an alleged scuffle with Mumbai Cricket Association officials as the IPL continued to be dogged by controversies.

Within days of a TV sting operation that implicated five players in spot-fixing, the IPL was hit by another furore during KKR's match against Mumbai Indians here last night with one of its franchise owners in the spotlight.

The MCA officials have lodged a police complaint against Khan for his alleged misbehaviour at the stadium and decided to ban him for life from entering the premises.

"We have lodged a complaint against him at the Marine Drive Police station (for his alleged misbehaviour against MCA officials)," informed MCA secretary Nitin Dalal.

The Bollywood star had an altercation with the security and officials of the association after the Knight Riders had swamped Mumbai Indians, according to MCA treasurer Ravi Savant.

"He misbehaved and abused the MCA security personnel as well as MCA officials, including our president Vilasrao Deshmukh, after the IPL match (between KKR and Mumbai Indians). We have decided to ban him for life from entering the stadium in future," said Savant, who alleged that the actor was in a totally inebriated state.

But there was confusion over whether the actor has actually been banned with IPL Chairman Rajiv Shukla saying a final decision on the matter would only be taken after getting the version of all the involved parties.

"I will take the version of the MCA, Shah Rukh Khan and the police before talking about the issue," he told reporters in New Delhi.

"The decision on ban is taken by the Working Committee so I will speak to MCA president Vilasrao Deshmukh on this. I have to take the version of all the parties involved and then speak," Shukla added.

Giving the background to what happened after the KKR's 32-run rout of MI at the Wankhede stadium, Savant said Khan and his posse of bodyguards had gone up to the dressing room and then come down and started to step on to the ground.

"The MCA security personnel told them they cannot do so as the match was over which led to Shah Rukh abusing them as well as the MCA officials. There was manhandling too by his people. We have decided to ban him from all future matches at the stadium. We are also going to lodge a police complaint against him," said Savant.

Savant also said that one of the members of the MCA's managing committee who is also a top police official, Iqbal Sheikh, tried to intervene and pacify the actor but could not do so as he was in no mood to listen to anyone.

Asked whether MCA would lodge a complaint with the BCCI over one of the IPL team's owner's behaviour, Savant said all the altercation had taken place in the presence of IPL CEO Sundar Raman and BCCI's media manager Devendra Prabhudesai.

"Of course we will lodge a complaint with the BCCI also," said Savant. Dalal said the MCA is scheduled to have a managing committee meeting next week and would discuss the scandal.

Meanwhile, BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty was guarded in his take on the matter but conceded that the MCA officials are furious over an 'unprovoked incident'.

"An unprovoked incident took place. I am in MCA and BCCI as well. We can speak only after getting complete information on this. Definitely the BCCI will look at whatever MCA has to say because we don't know what actually transpired there. At this point it won't be possible for the BCCI to comment," he said.

On the ban on Khan, Shetty said, "I was not here so it won't be right if I speak on this incident. The MCA officials were abused, I really don't know the other details of what action has been taken by the MCA. Once the matter comes to BCCI, things will be looked into.

"Till the time we get a letter from MCA, we can't comment on the basis of media reports. The MCA will have to tell us first," he added.