BCCI- CoA tug of war continues
New Delhi, Feb. 23: The BCCI has reacted sharply to the Committee of Administrators red- flagging a proposed day/ night Test match against the West Indies in October despite positive feedback from national chief coach Ravi Shastri.
The proposed match became a contentious issue after CoA chief Vinod Rai complained of being kept in dark about the plan. BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary, CEO Rahul Johri and GM ( Cricket Operations) Saba Karim were in touch with Shastri regarding the Test match.
Shastri has told the Board that he would ideally like a tier II team ( West Indies) to be hosted in a tier II city and one session be played under lights to counter the dew factor in early winter.
Rai’s angry missive, directed at Chaudhary, for not keeping CoA in the loop has raised eyebrows about the scope and role of the Supreme Courtappointed committee.
When senior officials in the BCCI were asked about Rai’s letter, there were mixed responses.
“Mr Rai is correct when he is talking about the process of taking policy decisions. Obviously, ( BCCI acting president) C. K. Khanna and ( treasurer) Aniruddh Chaudhary should have also been kept in the loop which Amitabh and Rahul didn’t do,” a top official said.
“But then Mr Rai has not kept the acting president and treasurer in the loop on many occasions. Suddenly in this letter, he realised that Khanna and Aniruddh have not been kept in the loop,” he added.
Rai has said “four people sitting in cricket centre” can’t take policy decisions. although no names were taken, the four who operate from the Board’s Mumbai headquarters are Johri, Karim, Chaudhary and IPL COO Hemang Amin. It has been learnt that Chaudhary in his defence wrote back,... In any case, as the contents indicate, the effort was only to impede the fast disappearing spectator support for Test cricket.”
However there was another official who felt that, “if four people are taking decisions then they must be credible enough to do so and freedom be given to them.”
“It was under CoA that Saba was appointed, now why is Saba’s intentions are being indirectly questioned,” he pointed out.
Rai has instructed BCCI office- bearers to put on hold any plans to conduct a D/ N Test match as he is concerned about multiple factors — players’ body clock over five days, cost factor of state associations, and administrative arrangements among other things. The former CAG’s letter has surprised the Board officials, including his comment about how CoA member Diana Edulji has “more cricketing knowledge” than all of them put together.