MUMBAI, Oct 10: The Maharashtra Chess Association (MCA) has debarred Dronacharya-Awardee Raghunandan Gokhale from taking part in or entering venues of all tournaments conducted by it, its affiliated units or recognised by it for two years, for his alleged misbehaviour during an International Rating tournament at Sangli in May.The MCA has also demanded Rs 2,000 from the player-cum-coach as reimbursement for expenses incurred by it during an international rating tournament in Sangli in May.The MCA's executive committee, at its meeting on September 24, has also decided that in case Gokhale fails to cough up the sum and tender an unconditional apology within a month to the Sangli tournament's chief arbiter, RH Sagar, his suspension from MCA-connected events would be extended by two more years.The committee has demanded the unconditional apology from the player-cum-coach for allegedly threatening Sagar. The executive committee, which had served a show cause notice on Gokhale after the chief arbiter hadmade a specific report against the behaviour and actions of Gokhale, had asked Gokhale to present his side of the case during its sitting. But Gokhale did not attend the meeting, according to MCA's secretary RM Dongre.The unsavoury episode at Sangli started after Sagar dropped the names of 11 participants in the penultimate round for refusing to follow the mandatory registration procedure of the All India Chess Federation (AICF).The players' names were dropped as they had failed to abide by the tournament rules according to the chief arbiter who was examined by the committee. The committee later decided after its three-hour deliberations that all the events at the Sangli tournament had caused great harm to the MCA's reputation and the game of chess.The committee unanimously concluded that Gokhale had played a major role in the Sangli events and found him guilty of misbehaviour on several counts.The committee charged that Gokhale's complaint to the Sangli district collector had widespreadramifications on the conduct of the tournament as it had set in motion a series of events which resulted in delaying the round by ten hours.Gokhale flays MCARaghunandan Gokhale, in a rejoinder to reports on his suspension from competition for two years by the MCA, claims that the body governing chess in the state have resorted to such drastic action to malign his name and reputation.In a letter to the press, Gokhale questioned MCA's action. He asked why RH Sagar did not take action in Sangli itself where several players were expelled on various issues. Gokhale also decried MCA action which was taken without an inquiry being held.Gokhale, who affirmed he was affiliated through the Bank Sports Board to the All India Chess Federation (AICF) and not the MCA, said: ``The players at Sangli were not ready to get registered without proper receipts. As a senior player, I requested the Collector of Sangli to mediate.``MCA now says that I wrote a false complaint against Mr Sagar. I challenged themto produce my letter to the collector. They say that they do not have the copy but believe that it was a malicious letter.``Not a single member of the MCA was present at Sangli, nor did they bother to visit the place before taking action against me. This clearly shows their malice when they take such action based on somebody's unsubstantiated letter.'' Gokhale added.
