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Cutting the umbilical chord with BCCI: Vinod Rai

Diana Edulji says she enjoyed her tenure and it wasn’t tough as it looked

CoA chief Vinod Rai at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai for the General Body meeting | PTI

The first General Body Meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after three years ran over 30 minutes. As the three-member Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) watched, N. Gopalaswamy, BCCI’S electoral Officer, declared the results. Attended by representatives of 35 state associations, the Sourav Ganguly-led team of elected office-bearers took charge, the meeting concluded, and Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji left the BCCI headquarters together. The bitter differences were a thing of past. The CoA's innings had finally come to an end.

Speaking to the media outside the Cricket Centre, Rai said he was totally satisfied with the work done by his Committee. On remitting office, Rai stated on behalf of the Committee members, “We will keep 100 per cent tab on Indian cricket. With BCCI, we will totally cut off the umbilical chord.”

Diana Edulji, who had many public difference with Rai over the last two years, said that she too was satisfied and was not ever unnerved by the challenge of running cricket. “I have always enjoyed the administrative aspect of the sport and so, never found it challenging.”

Rai said the CoA was leaving cricket, satisfied with the efforts put in by the committee, and the results were there for all to see. “We are totally satisfied because we are leaving the BCCI behind with five former players in administration in the apex council and IPL governing council. The BCCI administration could never have been better than this because we have a president who is one of our most successful captains. He has done about five years of cricket administration in Bengal. He has now taken over the reins of BCCI administration.”

He expressed full confidence in Ganguly’s ability to run the cricket body’ affairs well. “I think, on behalf of the CoA, that there is no person better placed with experience than him to handle cricket administration in the country today.”

On whether he thought the CoA’s innings would last as long as it did, Rai admitted, “The tenure got elongated only because there were 92 interlocutory applications in the Supreme Court. Supreme Court, being as busy as it is, took time to resolve these applications.”

As soon as the GBM got over, the disqualified members led by former BCCI president N. Srinivasan made an entry into the BCCI office. Asked whether the reforms were really successful as nepotism reigned in the state associations as well as in BCCI, Rai preferred to not wade into that controversy. “As far as COA is concerned, we are agnostic about family and other things. Our job was to implement the constitution. We got the election done as per the constitution. All the issues of the constitution have been taken care of.”

Asked whether his tenure as CoA chief was more difficult or his tenure as Comptroller and Auditor General, Rai said CoA's brief was limited and working dependent on SC orders. “That was definitely more challenging. There was no difficulty in this but we could proceed only after the Supreme Court gave us clearance for this. Here, we had no flexibility, it was only at the discretion of the Supreme Court verdict which had to be followed.

Rai said he was happy with compliance level of BCCI members. “Thirty-two states have complied, three have not. We are totally satisfied because those three states have the option even now. They can join any time they want.”

Rai said as of today there was 100 per cent transparency in the way BCCI functioned. “There is 100 per cent transparency. All our decisions are on the website today. We hope it will be maintained going forward,” he said.