The BCCI’s first working committee meeting since Jagmohan Dalmiya regained the president’s chair is likely to see number of important issues coming up for discussion.
Chennai Super Kings’ valuation and the appointment of the national team coach are of the key issues that will feature in Sunday’s meeting here.
Another issue that is likely to come up is the appointment of Neeraj Kumar and Madhusudan Sharma as consultants to the BCCI Anti-Corruption Unit. Many members have already voiced their concerns over the validity of the proposed appointments of Neeraj Kumar, a former Delhi police commissioner, and Madhusudan Sharma, a retired IPS officer, by the IPL Governing Council.
The reported valuation of CSK, which has been set at Rs.5 lakh to ensure its de-merger from the parent company India Cements, has seen a number of BCCI members voicing their objection.
One of the BCCI officials to attend the meeting said the valuation process was started without the working committee’s approval.
Without going into the logic behind the paltry amount, the member maintained that the de-merger process should have started with the consent of the working committee.
The meeting is likely to witness a volley of legal points and counter-points over the issue as both the BCCI and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, which is apparently standing up for CSK, are lining up legal experts.
Among the seven items on the agenda in Sunday’s meeting, the issue of the appointment of the two IPS officers may come up for discussion when the meeting takes up the report of the IPL governing council meeting on April 20.
It has been maintained by a few members that the IPL governing council cannot deliberate or decide on such appointments, which is the prerogative of the working committee.
With the position of India coach falling vacant after the completion of Duncan Fletcher’s term, the appointment of the new coach is also going to be discussed in the meeting.
Special Correspondent in Mumbai adds
The Board is in possession of the opinions of its attorney on the modalities followed to facilitate a change in ownership of Chennai Super Kings from India Cements to a fully owned subsidiary called Chennai Super Kings Ltd (CSKL).
India Cements has already informed the Bombay Stock Exchange about its decision. At a Board meeting in early February, India Cements also decided that its more than 97,000 share holders will receive proportionate shares of the new subsidiary.
It remains to be seen if the BCCI’s working committee will allow CSKL to be run by a trust. The IPL-Governing Council under the previous chairman Ranjib Biswal had approved the changes and recommended it to be placed before the BCCI working committee. But, at the newly appointed IPL-GC meeting held in New Delhi recently, members are reported to have sought clarity on how the subsidiary CSKL proposed to be run by a trust can be valued at only Rs.5 lakh.
Those in the know of happenings within the new dispensation said members would be given the relevant details at the working committee meeting.
“There has been no commercial sale; it’s only transposition of shares,” said a BCCI official. Another point that is to be discussed is regarding the induction of the Karnataka State Cricket Association into the working committee.
While Gujarat and Vidharbha — which hosted matches against England in November and December 2012 — to gain a place in the committee on the basis of having hosted Test matches in the last two years, the KSCA (hosted New Zealand in August 2012), is not on the committee.
