Around sixteen member units of the Board of Control for Cricket in India met in New Delhi on Satudat to express concern over the manner in which the Committee of Administrators is taking decisions without keeping the organisation in loop. The meeting was helmed by former BCCI president N. Srinivasan and was labelled as an informal interaction over issues erupting after the total break down of interaction and communication between the board, its office bearers and the CoA.
Apart from Srinivasan, those present included acting board president C.K. Khanna and acting treasurer Anirudh Chawdhry. Acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary did not attend the meeting nor did he take part in the discussions over teleconference or video link. Prominent attendees included former Karnataka State Cricket Association secretary Brijesh Patel and former BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah. Those who participated via telephone link included former India skipper and Cricket Association of Bengal president Sourav Ganguly and National Cricket Club representative Avishekh Dalmiya apart from representatives of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat cricket associations.
Those who kept away from the meeting included IPL Governing Council chairman Rajeev Shukla, representatives of Vidarbha and Maharashtra and Mumbai cricket associations.
The main focus of the meting as per one senior member present was to “convey via media” the anguish over the organisation being totally sidelined by CoA and BCCI CEO Rajul Johri. “The CoA cannot take BCCI for granted. It has not built the BCCI to what it is today; we the members have contributed to its growth,” said Shah.
When pointed out that as per the COA , the tenure of board office bearers was over and thus they felt it was no longer necessary to consult them, Shah said that is not the interpretation that BCCI follows. “Tenure has always been from AGM to AGM.”
A press note issued after the meeting stated, “Today, a majority of the members of BCCI met informally to express concern for the manner in which the CoA was systematically taking decisions of long term consequence to the BCCI which was not the mandate given to them by the Hon’ble Supreme Court.” The members cited process that were to be duly followed as per rules and regulations of the cricket board and accused the COA of ignoring them. They said, “The COA, it seems, has been taking decisions with the assumption that the BCCI members do not exist.”
The press note listed 10 points wherein it accused the COA of undermining the board and undervaluing media rights. It also accused the COA of double standards in awarding one time benefit to its member and her sister, changing organisation structure and hiring employees at arbitrary salary levels, taking crucial decisions related to NCA without consulting board members, using services of a public relations firm to malign board members and engaging with ICC member countries without keeping board members in the loop.
On the issue of media rights for domestic and international cricket in India, that are scheduled to be announced on April 3 via e-auction, the BCCI members accused the COA of devaluing the rights. “The tender for media rights of domestic and bilateral games in India, which six years ago was sold for 43 crores per match after much discussion and effort and after following a transparent process, is now being decided only by a two member COA with inputs and briefings from the CEO and the legal team. They have put a minimum bid value which is lower than the existing value of six years ago. The marketing committee or the members that constitute the general body of the BCCI were not consulted. The maximum impact of this decision is on the BCCI and the same members of the BCCI. Members felt that no order of the Supreme Court so far in the case has given the CoA, CEO etc. such sweeping powers to act opaquely and independently on a matter of such great financial magnitude.”
The note also vehemently protested the COA’s move to take away signing authority of office bearers in matters of payments and other financial transactions. “The CoA, for their convenience and because the office bearers raised some questions, directed that people who are not office bearer operate the bank accounts which is in utter violation of the constitution and is against financial prudence. How the bankers of the BCCI allowed this to happen is also a pertinent question.”
Members were upset on board money being “thrown away” by CoA and management team. “All jobs were earlier being carried out by members acting in an Honorary capacity, the CoA is appointing people at exorbitant salaries without consulting the members and nobody knows what procedures were followed. The role of the head hunting agency was also questioned.”
Board members accused CEO Rahul Johri of hiring personal body guard and passing him on as his executive assistant! “In the history of the BCCI no office bearer or an employee felt the need to be protected professionally. The CEO Mr Johri in consultation with a security consultant got a personal body guard provided to him under the pretext that he was his secretary. One such body guard was recently seen on duty for protection services with an IPL team owner. By billing the body guard under some other head to prevent members knowing about it, Mr Johri in conjunction with the CoA have falsified the accounts” they alleged.
A big sore point for the BCCI members was the PR agency contracted to “shore up image” of the board. Interestingly, the agency Adfactors was first brought in by ousted board president Anurag Thakur. Its services were then retained by Johri post Thakur’s removal by Supreme Court. The members allege Adfactors’ services are being used not for image building but maligning the members.
The members reiterated that they were not meeting to discuss the reforms process or BCCI elections or, for that matter, taking legal recourse to latest fight with COA. All they wanted was to air their concerns. Members said the Supreme Court is seized of the matter and that they had complete faith in the Supreme Court.