After informing the Supreme Court in its seventh Status Report that the current elected office-bearers of the BCCI have completed their three-year term on March 1, 2018, the CoA, with Vinod Rai as its head, tightened the noose around the officials in a manner that would restrict their travel outside their home city to discharge official work of the BCCI.
The CoA has told the office-bearers: take our permission for all you want to do.
In a fresh directive issued on Thursday, in addition to the first set issued on April 6, 2017, the CoA has stated that the office-bearers — acting-president C.K. Khanna, acting-secretary Amitabh Choudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry — and their executive assistants shall not travel on BCCI’s behalf without CoA’s prior permission.
Travel plan must
And in the event of the office-bearers and assistants seeking permission, they have to specifically put down the travel plan and most importantly state the reason for their travel to a particular place.
Clearly, the CoA believes that the elected office-bearers have no business to continue in office and use the BCCI’s resources. But an official kept in the loop of the CoA decision said: “The Supreme Court could question the CoA’s inaction. The court order of January 2, 2017 is emphatic. The Court has given the CoA the mandate to supervise the functioning of the BCCI through the CEO.”
The fresh directives can be assumed to be prompted by Choudhary’s decision not to sign the appointment letter of a person selected as General Manager, Marketing. The CoA is also upset at Choudhary’s repeated statement to the media that he and the other office-beaters of the BCCI have nothing to do with the player contract and package announced by the CoA and that he will not sign the relevant documents.
All BCCI contracts above ₹25 lakh and appointment letters have to be signed by its secretary. The CoA has made a provision that it may ask the CEO to sign the contract and appointment letters in the event of the secretary refusing to do so in a reasonable period of time not exceeding five working days.
Similarly, the CoA has reiterated a directive that the BCCI CFO Santosh Rangnekar and GM-Operations, Saba Karim will be the alternate signatories to bank accounts in the the event of the acting-secretary and treasurer not processing payments within three working days.
The CoA has also said that the BCCI will not pay for the office-bearers’ expenses anymore in litigations related to the Cricket Association of Bihar and BCCI case that led to the justice Lodha Committee’s reforms in Cricket report. In addition, it has also said that the CEO will deal with legal matters on behalf of the BCCI.
Among other directives the CoA has said that any power accorded by the existing BCCI constitution shall be implemented by the office-bearers only with prior permission of the CoA. Recently, Khanna, citing the rules and regulations, appointed KSCA’s Vinay Mruthyunjaya in the finance committee, following the resignation of TNCA’s Kasi Viswanathan.
With its hands tied now, the office-bearers, who themselves are at loggerheads, would find it tough to bring any semblance of administration. It would be interesting to see the immediate response from the three officials.
For a start, Choudhary has to take CoA’s permission to travel to Sri Lanka for the Nidahas Trophy final. The three office-bearers would have to take the CoA nod, post facto, to attend the IPL GC meeting here on Friday.
