>Newly-elected BCCI President Shashank Manohar today announced a slew of reforms, including the appointment of an ombudsman to deal with contentious issues like conflict of interest, as part of a clean-up operation to restore the Cricket Board’s battered image.
Laying down his roadmap for the Board, Mr. Manohar also announced several other important decisions which included central contracts of women cricketers, common auditor to monitor expenses of all the state units and putting BCCI’s balance sheet on the Board website to promote transparency.
He also wants to have discussions with central government authorities, to find out whether an investigating agency can be attached to the BCCI.
“BCCI has become a huge brand due to the love of the fans and the cricket loving population of this country. Confidence of the fans has been shaken due to certain unpleasant things that have happened. It is the duty of all the representatives of the Board to bring the Board back to its original reputation,” Mr. Manohar told mediapersons during his first media interaction.
“I am asking you to give me two months’ time, I have two years in office,” he added.
Among the reforms that Manohar plans to implement for the smooth-functioning of the Board, the appointment of Ethics Officer is top-most on his agenda.
“BCCI had formed regulation for players, coaches and staff. We are planning to have an Ombudsman or an Ethics Officer independent of the Board who can look into the complaints regarding Conflict of Interest.
“Secondly, we need to lay down the norms and measures to prevent corruption in the games. We will have more programmes to educate players,” he said.
“I will discuss this with our Secretary (Anurag Thakur), whether we can have discussions with the Central Government to have a tie-up with investigative agencies as BCCI does not have investigative powers. This will help restore the faith of the fans in the game,” he said.
He also spoke about bringing more transparency in the functioning of state units where an independent auditor would check their expenses as to how they are spending the BCCI grant.
“The associations are paid huge money by the BCCI to spend on cricketing or other activities. Their accounts are audited by auditors appointed by state associations. But I would like to have a system where Board appoints an auditor, independent of state associations. Once their accounts are audited, they would get full money,” the new president said.
Mr. Manohar advocated that the National Cricket Academy should once again start being the Centre of Excellence rather than being a rehabilitation centre.
“We would want NCA to function throughout the year. There are no good spinners available in the country. We want NCA to be a centre which can produce replacement for the available lot when required,” he added.
