BCCI office bearers hold 'informal' meeting

New Delhi [India], Mar 25 (ANI): The Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) office bearers on Saturday held an informal meeting including former president N. Srinivasan over the matter where 'Committee of Administrators (CoA) was taking decisions of long-term consequence to the BCCI which was not the mandate given to them by Supreme Court'.

In the meeting, the BCCI members observed that the CoA has indulged in continuous missives to tie the hands and feet of experienced administrators of BCCI by bypassing provisions of the BCCI constitution.

They feel that the COA is 'invading into the BCCI constitution' and going beyond their brief from the Supreme Court, they can't be allowed to do this and run it in their own way, as per sources.

According to a note, this was out of a common 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 Supreme Court.

"The members discussed the following acts of the CoA that are detrimental to the BCCI and are long-term in nature where decisions have been taken without consulting the general body of members of the BCCI. The COA it seems has been taking decisions with the assumption that the BCCI members do not exist," the note read.

Among the 10 points of grievances, the members accused the COA of "not consulting the marketing team of BCCI" before putting "a minimum bid value which is lower than the value of six years ago (Rs 43 crores per match) on tender for media rights".

They also alleged that the COA was "tying the hands and feet of experienced administrators of BCCI by bypassing provisions of the BCCI constitution".

Accusing the COA of 'nepotism', the note added, "It is a matter of great regret that the CoA approved a one-time benefit to one of its members and her sister and has failed to disclose this as a transaction with an interested party. While the CoA pontificates on a number of things, when their interest is involved they are silent."

The BCCI officials also discussed how the COA were "appointing people at exorbitant salaries" without consulting the members or following any procedure. Previously, these "jobs" were carried out by members acting in an "honorary capacity."

"On the pitch, decisions related to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) was also being taken without consultation or approval of members or even the NCA committee," the note further read.

The office bearers also complained that the COA was directly engaging with the other members of the ICC "without advertence to the members or the office bearers", thus jeopardising BCCI's position in the sport's world body.

Criticising BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, the office bearers commented, "In the history of the BCCI, no office bearer or an employee felt the need to be protected professionally. The CEO Johri in consultation with a security consultant got a personal bodyguard provided to him under the pretext that he was his secretary. One such bodyguard was recently seen on duty for protection services with an IPL team owner."

"By billing the bodyguard under some other head to prevent members knowing about it, Johri in conjunction with the CoA have falsified the accounts," the members' note claimed.

It also alleged that a PR agency was roped in to uplift the image of the BCCI, but apparently no work has been done on that front, and on the contrary, "there were reports of them working to malign the image of the members and office bearers, especially before an approaching date of hearing in the Supreme Court". (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI