CoA bars Board strongmen from attending IPL auction

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Courtappointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), headed by former CAG Vinod Rai, has barred CK Khanna, Amitabh Choudhary and Anirudh Chaudhry from attending the IPL auction on Monday. The decision was announced through a media release on Sunday.

The panel has also barred any other ex-officio member of the IPL governing council on account of being office-bearers of the BCCI. Khanna is the senior-most vice-president of the BCCI, who was tipped to be interim BCCI president while the Lodha Committee reforms were being implemented by the state associations.

But Choudhury (acting BCCI joint-secretary) and Chaudhry’s (acting BCCI treasurer) omission is significant in the context of the ICC meeting in Dubai earlier this month. Both are trusted men of N Srinivasan, who as ICC chief had formed the ‘Big Three’ model that allowed India pocket the biggest share of the revenue. But the BCCI’s share was slashed in a meeting where current ICC chief Shashank Manohar rallied all the nations, barring Sri Lanka, to either vote against India or abstain. It didn’t go down well with the BCCI officials forced out after the Lodha Committee reforms were implemented. The BCCI had always boasted how the IPL, its proverbial cash cow, can be milked to survive any financial blow. The IPL was its biggest trump card.

Theywereevenonthevergeof planning a mini IPL last year in place of the loss-making Champions League T20. But the CoA’s decision to bar Choudhury and Chaudhry from the IPL auction means that the erstwhile BCCI top bosses have lost control over their biggest money-churner.

The IPL governing council had four members --- chairman Rajeev Shukla, Jyotiraditya Scindia, MP Pandove and Sourav Ganguly. All except Ganguly have quit their roles in BCCI or at their respective state bodies.