‘Makeover BCCI’, the theme of WC meeting

CSK and RR’s future, as well as CSK valuation issue, likely to be discussed. Status reports on Pepsi pullout, India-Pakistan series to be presented.

The Working Committee was led by BCCI head Shashank Manohar.

Sunday’s Working Committee (WC) meeting in Mumbai will offer the first hints of the nature of the evolving relationship between the BCCI dispensation, led by Shashank Manohar, and past president N. Srinivasan.

On being elected president, Manohar articulated his views on the way forward for the BCCI; he also spoke of the importance of unity, saying his team will not work with a vindictive attitude. The following day, Srinivasan withdrew the offence of perjury case against BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur. This helped resolve a tricky issue as BCCI vice-president T.C. Mathew, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary and the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) had filed supporting affidavits with Srinivasan’s petition.

Perhaps not every word given to the Chennai camp was carried out by a section of the powers that be in the BCCI before the Supreme Court, but Srinivasan — who will not represent the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association at the WC meeting — gave indications he would walk the extra mile in a show of solidarity with Manohar.

Adjourned on August 28 because Jagmohan Dalmiya and his close aides were not sure if Srinivasan’s conflict of interest had been resolved following the Lodha commission’s decision to suspend Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, the WC will proceed with routine matters on Sunday.

Pending matters

Pending IPL matters are also likely to be discussed, mainly the action to be taken on the report submitted by the four-man IPL-GC working group. IPL GC chairman Rajeev Shukla has said many times that the consensus is for an eight-team tournament for IPL-9 and 10. CSK and RR — two champion and popular teams — have invested a lot of money in the last eight years and the chances of the BCCI “terminating their franchise agreements” looks unlikely.

But the issue of CSK’s valuation after the franchise was demerged from the India Cements group could be a different matter altogether. The opinion of a number of legal experts on the “entire process of the demerger and its subsequent valuation of Rs. 5 lakh by CSK” is likely to be placed before the WC. At the WC meeting in New Delhi on April 26, Manohar (representing Vidarbha CA) had raised serious questions on the matter.

The members will be given the latest status reports on Pepsi pulling out of the IPL’s title sponsorship and the way to maintain the MoU signed with the PCB for a series in the UAE in December. The house will be informed of the bottle-throwing incidents that interfered with the India-South Africa T20 match at Cuttack. The WC will also finalise the date of its Annual General Meeting.

This being the first WC meeting since April 26 (because the Aug. 28 one was adjourned), with the Lodha commission in the process of preparing a report on how the BCCI should function, Manohar will take centre-stage. Some of the points he raised have already been addressed. A week ago, the BCCI appointed Deloitte, an audit, consulting and financial advisory company, to present a ‘Project Transformation’ report. The BCCI has also changed its tax consultant and internal auditor of 10 years.