Photo: AFP
New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) wants Virat Kohli out of his job! In fact the Indian cricket board, quite literally, wants him to be unemployed.
It's not the job as Team India skipper which is at stake for Virat, the board is pointing at the one where he is employed as a manager in ONGC.
And it's not just Virat, the BCCI has on its hit list the likes of Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and at least a hundred other cricketers.
The BCCI, at the behest of CoA, has been insisting on players to quit their jobs with public sector companies in order to bag a contract with the board. The board has cited the Conflict of Interest issue as the main reason behind this move.
The Conflict of issue will be tabled at the SGM in Delhi on Wednesday and will remain the most argued and debated topic at the meeting. "Yes it will be tabled and we will talk about it in detail. Not just players but there are whole lot of other things as well when we deal with conflict of interest," a BCCI official told wah cricket.
" The players obviously will be most affected and it will be on the members to decide. We also have the option of referring it back to the Supreme Court as per their recent directions," the official added.
Already the appointments of support staff and managers with the India A, junior team and women team are pending because the selected candidates have been asked to quit their job with public sector companies before they sign the contract.
The board's move comes in wake of Lodha reforms preventing a government or public sector employee from being paid or reimbursed.
Interestingly, maximum recruitments in cricket are under government or public sector companies which includes Railways, Air India, ONGC, HPCL, Indian Oil, FCI, BSNL, Audit and Excise, Income Tax office.
This move will this prevent scores of cricketers at international and domestic level from being assigned any job with the BCCI and their state unit.
The most interesting aspect will be their participation in IPL where both centrally contracted players and domestic players are involved. This issue first cropped in the inaugural edition of IPL but was sorted out after respective employers provided a NOC to the players. However, the proposed rules are more stringent this time.
The Supreme Court had indicated that it is open to reviewing Lodha reforms that are difficult to implement. Even as all eyes will remain at the SGM and the reforms they accept, the players, including Virat Kohli will be keenly hoping that they don't have to lose their jobs.