BCCI CEO Johri on leave, COA to take full charge
NEW DELHI: The Committee of Administrators (COA) is likely to take full charge of the daily affairs of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after its chief executive officer (CEO) Rahul Johri went on leave to prepare his defence against allegations of sexual harassment, according to well-placed sources.
Johri has been under pressure after he was named in an anonymous tweet that alleged that he had harassed a female colleague in a previous organisation.
Johri had earlier been exempted from attending an International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in Singapore from October 16-19 after the COA refused to give him a 14-day extension to explain the matter. In his place, BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary is attending the meeting.
“It is a purely anonymous complaint,” COA chief Vinod Rai was quoted as saying by Espncricinfo. “It is on an unknown Twitter handle and it pertains to a period much before he (Johri) joined BCCI. The COA felt it would only be fair to us and him that we give him a chance to explain.”
The COA had given him a week’s time which Johri wanted to extend to 14 days.
Rai had told PTI on Sunday that “Rahul had sought 14 days for a detailed explanation as he said that he is working with his legal team and since he was to attend ICC meeting from October 16-19 in Singapore. But I clearly told Rahul that I cannot let this issue simmer for 14 days as the BCCI office will be affected by it. Since he wants to sit with his lawyers now, I allowed him exemption from ICC meeting.”
Johri has been BCCI’S key man in administration and has travelled and dealt with almost all the main issues, including the team’s preparations for Australia. “We have not taken away functional powers till he submits his explanation and the legal team analyses it,” Rai had said.
There has been opposition in the past from BCCI’S acting office-bearers to the way Johri has been functioning with COA. The acting office-bearers have also had major differences with the COA which has led to plenty of bad blood.
The acting office-bearers have been maintaining that Coa’s job is to implement the new BCCI constitution even though the COA says it has been mandated by the Supreme Court to oversee the overall functioning of the board.
As of now, things will be solely in the hand of Rai-led COA, which will run the affairs through the administrative team in Mumbai, and how it deals with the acting BCCI office-bearers will pave the future.