The Committee of Administrators (CoA), appointed by the Supreme Court, on Tuesday conveyed to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that latter cannot correspond with the International Cricket Council (ICC) on any matter without seeking its permission.
The CoA’s communication was sent to BCCI acting president C.K.Khanna, joint secretary Amitabh Choudhary, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and CEO Rahul Johri.
When contacted, Mr. Khanna said: “My daughter is in hospital. I cannot talk now.”
A few members revealed that Mr. Khanna has not been taken into confidence by vested interests in the BCCI.
Upset by the ICC’s overwhelming 12-2 and 13-1 vote to pass the changes in its Constitution and Financial model at the ICC Board meeting in Dubai on April 26, the BCCI has being trying to drum up support from its members to invoke the Members Participation Agreement (MPA), which actually means pulling out of all ICC events to be held from 2017 to 2023.
The BCCI has convened a Special General Meeting in New Delhi on May 7 to consider the key resolutions and other decisions taken at the ICC meetings from April 22 to 26.
In its communication, the CoA stated:
"With a view to ensuring that the management and administration of the BCCI are carried out in accordance with the orders passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court as well as in the interests of good governance, the Committee of Administrators considers it necessary to issue the following directions in addition to the directions dated 6 April 2017:
1. All letters, notices and other correspondence on behalf of the BCCI which seek to invoke or exercise any rights/ remedies under the Members Participation Agreement entered into between the BCCI and the ICC Business Corporation FZ-LLC (“IBC”) shall only be issued with the prior approval of the Committee of Administrators.
2. The direction in Paragraph 1 above shall also apply to letters, notices and other correspondence which seek to invoke or exercise any rights/ remedies against the International Cricket Council (“ICC”)."
Earlier in the day, the BCCI sent an 11th hour SMS, asking the full members to join a conference call and give their opinion on the matter of invoking the MPA. It is understood that harsh words were said about the Vidarbha Cricket Assocication (VCA), but its president, Anand Jaiswal, asserted that their association is a full member of the BCCI and its opinion on the particular matter should be noted.
A participant in the conference call said, “Not many members joined the conference call. And many who were part of the hurriedly arranged conference call did not give their opinion. Why should the BCCI do all this in a covert manner. I believe they are going to talk to the others who could not join the conference call. A couple of them got disconnected mid-way. First of all, they did not even issue a notice specifying the agenda so that each member could have placed it before its committee.’’
