The Committee of Administrators (CoA), appointed by the Supreme Court, reiterated its position to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday midnight that there is no need to send a notice to the International Cricket Council (ICC) seeking remedial measures for the breach of the Members Participation Agreement (MPA) caused at the ICC Board meeting n Dubai on April 26.
The MPA is a 63-page document binding upon the ICC to fulfill certain obligations to the cricket Boards of India, Australia and England; more significantly the MPA gives the freedom to the three Boards to terminate the agreement and make itself not available for the ICC events from 2016 to 2023. The MPA was created in 2014 when N.Srinivasan was the ICC Chairman, Cricket Australia was represented by Wall Edwards and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) by Giles Clarke.
Charging the ICC of violating the MPA, as a consequence of adopting a new administrative structure and financial models, the BCCI has taken a strident stand and threatened to terminate the MPA. It mustered support from 23 full members to send a notice to the ICC on Thursday morning, but the CoA, stating that it has the right to “supervise and control the management and administration of the BCCI’’, put its foot down, saying that only the Special General Meeting (SGM) convened on May 7 has to consider the outcome of the ICC meetings.
BCCI Joint Secretary Amitabh Choudhary explained the Board’s version (see full letter below) and impressed upon the CoA need to send a notice to the ICC. In its response mailed around midnight on Thursday, the CoA conveyed to the BCCI that its doesn’t feel the need to change its opinion on the matter.
Amitabh Choudhary's letter to CoA:
''I have gone through your reply and I would like to bring to your attention the fact that all that the notice seeks to do is to ask the ICC to remedy the breach that they have committed with regard to the Members Participation Agreement. The said Agreement envisages a 30 day period to be provided for either of the parties to remedy a breach that may have occurred to the disadvantage of the other party. The draft notice does not talk about any drastic step, but merely appropriate consequences. The consequences can only be decided by the General Body of the BCCI as you have recognised in your communication of yesterday to all members since the decision would have long term effects.
''Sir, unless you have an opinion on record that states that the notice period as envisaged under the MPA can be of less than 30 days, your belief as mentioned in para 2 of the communication sent today that the BCCI’s legal rights would not be prejudiced in any manner if a notice is not issued to the ICC prior to SGM may not be well founded. I would once again like to reiterate that the notice only seeks to ask the ICC/IBC to remedy the breach that they have committed in a period of 30 days from today and this is not a decision of great magnitude and in fact, on the other hand, not sending a notice may turn out to be a decision of great magnitude since it may have the possible effect of closing an option that may be available to the BCCI within a given time frame. Further, not sending the notice in time may amount to dereliction of duty on my part.
''Regarding point 3 of your communication, Sir, we may discuss at the appropriate time and at the appropriate forum and if the General Body of the BCCI takes a decision that is contrary to law, I would presume you would approach the Hon’ble Supreme Court but a decision that is well within the rights of an organisation to take to protect its interests and rights can hardly be contested. I am of the view that one need not lose sight of the fact that it is not only about the changes made to the revenue share but also about the proposed changes to the governance structure as is borne out even by the communication sent out on behalf of the CoA earlier to ICC and signed by the CEO.
''We have our views on paras 4 and 6 that are at variance on some issues with your views, Sir, and we shall also discuss those with you at the appropriate time and forum. It does appear to us, Sir, that you may not have been presented with the true set of facts.
''With regard to paras 5 and 7, Sir, I would like to emphatically state that the interest of our players is paramount to us and any suggestion to the contrary by anyone would be utterly devoid of merit. The BCCI or its member units, Sir, may I humbly state, have not lost sight of anything. I would also like to assure you that till an agreement is in place, the BCCI will do everything it can to honour the agreement and I had even kept you informed on all decisions in this regard including the selection of the team for the ensuing Champions’ Trophy.
''To conclude, I would like to reiterate that it is absolutely imperative that the Notice to ICC/IBC asking them to remedy the breach within a period of 30 days be sent today as a matter of abundant caution.''
