COA meet: BCCI’S legal counsel asked to go

THE SUPREME Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) sacked BCCI legal counsel Radha Rangaswamy on Friday. No reason has been given for the removal but according to a source, the COA is planning to change the lawyers in the cricket board setup. Rangaswamy is a very senior counsel who had been appearing for the BCCI as an Advocate-on-record (AOR) in the ongoing Lodha Committee recommendations court battle. She had appeared for the cricket board earlier as well, when the Supreme Court had removed N Srinivasan as BCCI president. Rangaswamy wasn’t available for comment.

According to the source, the decision to fire Rangaswamy was taken after the COA headed by Vinod Rai had a meeting with the lawyers and audit firm Deloitte today. The BCCI auditors were also invited. Deloitte audited the accounts of all state cricket associations and came up with reports of gross mismanagement in some of them. It is learnt that on Friday, the COA members heard the auditors, and lawyers and fixed the next meeting in Mumbai on February 25, when some decisions are expected. Implementation of the Lodha Committee recommendations accepted by the apex Court topped the agenda on Friday.

This was the first meeting of the committee after Vikram Limaye represented BCCI at the ICC Board Meeting where the global body led by former BCCI president Shashank Manohar decided to curtail India's share of the global body's revenue.

On January 30, the Supreme Court appointed a four-member panel of administrators comprising Vinod Rai, Ramchandra Guha, Limaye and Diana Edulji to manage the affairs of the cricket board and report on whether it has complied with the Lodha Committee’s recommendations.

The COA'S first job will be to conduct elections in all state cricket associations along with implementation of the reforms.

A senior BCCI member, however, questioned the COA’S decision to sack a cricket board counsel.

“The Supreme Court has asked the administrators to supervise the management of the BCCI. Are they empowered to terminate the contracts of BCCI lawyers and appoint a new set? In that case, the (cricket board) members are being ignored. Also, what about people like RP Shah (a BCCI employee), who had been found in a position of conflict of interest?” the BCCI member said, demanding anonymity.

Meanwhile, the BCCI on Friday released the Request for Proposal (RFP) to appoint a media agency for the upcoming IPL.

File COA chief Vinod Rai.