There has been a sudden flare up between the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the BCCI acting-secretary Amitabh Choudhary — the CoA issuing fresh directives confining the activities of the BCCI office-bearers and Choudhary ‘humbly’ lashing out at the CoA for not taking him and others into confidence.
In an interview, Choudhary talks about a few issues that have made the BCCI administration wobbly, especially after the January 2, 2017 order of the Supreme Court that removed the then BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke because they were proving to be impediments to the implementation of the Justice Lodha Reforms. Excerpts:
Is everybody interpreting the Supreme Court order correctly, especially empowering the CoA to supervise the BCCI administration through the CEO?
The Supreme Court order of January 2, 2017 was basically capping the judgement of July 18, 2016. The two were linked. The order was also a great expression of unhappiness that the July 18 order was not being complied with. The order also said a CoA must come into being.
The order also said that the CoA will supervise the administration of the BCCI. So the supervision was basically to facilitate the primary objective of the BCCI implementing the Lodha reforms.
Have the office-bearers been virtually taken out of the BCCI administration now?
I don’t want to comment on individuals, but we are not doing personal errands.
The jobs are clearly delimited by orders of the highest court of the country. The orders are crystal clear.
In fact, for reasons best not known to me and apparently when there were some ambiguities, the Supreme Court came back to say there was no ambiguity in the order and that it was as clear as a cloudless sky.
So when there is a cloudless sky, one must see the cloudless sky, not the clouds.
It’s quite bizarre that the BCCI is being administered under two Constitutions and both are on the website.
The January 2, 2017 order has slightly altered the situation.
The Court, however, has agreed to hear parties and felt that there could be areas of impracticalities and asked us to examine them. We are on it.
You refused to sign certain documents and contracts, an event that perhaps led to the flash point?
The BCCI Constitution is in force and hence I have to abide by that.
They must have sanction of the appropriate authorities and forums. I was in the dark. If I sign an appointment letter, I must be responsible for that. It would be imprudent of me to sign those documents.
The tour programme fixtures committee took decisions today, but they have been sent to the CoA?
We have to apprise the CoA of all Committee decisions. That’s perfectly fine and can be included in supervision. What is not included in supervision is supplanting someone. It’s not phonetics or lexicography. Everybody can make that out.
How are you going to function from now on?
It’s going to be very difficult. Well, no day is easy.
