Stepping out: BCCI members to move court against CoA

CHENNAI:Sidelined members of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have unanimously hit out against the Committee of Administrators (CoA) for their style of functioning. In an informal meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, which was attended by 14 state unit representatives with six more taking part via video conference, the members questioned the CoA’s move to reduce the minimum bid value for TV rights for bilateral and domestic events in India, which comes up for renewal shortly.

Express understands that former BCCI president N Srinivasan was present in the meeting and was instrumental in bringing the members together. Though various members and office-bearers of the BCCI have criticised the Supreme Court-appointed CoA for various reasons, this is the first time that a number of them assembled and raised so many questions. In all, they listed 10 objections against the CoA.
Importantly, the members decided to file separate affidavits before the apex court in the coming weeks, highlighting the flaws in some of the decisions taken by the CoA. In the past, they had spoken against the CoA, but not moved court. The CoA was not available for comments.

A note released by the members after the meeting read, “There are certain processes enshrined in the extant rules and regulations to be followed for decision making and the same processes are also enshrined in the rules and regulations as suggested by the Justice Lodha Committee and accepted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court. However, the processes are being ignored by the COA,” it read.

The primary objection is that despite there being no order from the court, the CoA and the BCCI CEO have been taking important decisions with far reaching financial consequences, without consulting the office-bearers or the general body.

CHENNAI:The members listed 10 contentious points. Foremost among them is about media rights for domestic and bilateral series to take place in India between April, 2018 to March, 2023. The CoA has set `33 crore per match as base value for TV rights, which is about `10 crore less than what the BCCI is earning in the existing contract. “The tender for media rights of domestic and bilateral games in India, which six years ago was sold for `43 crore per match after much discussion 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,” it said.

Taking objection to the CoA authorising the BCCI CFO and General Manager (Cricket Operations) to sign cheques in case office-bearers refuse to, the members argued that the BCCI constitution doesn’t allow anyone apart from office-bearers to do so. “(This is) 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,” said the note, which is not signed by anyone.

Also, with Shashank Manohar likely to exit as chairman of the ICC, the members questioned whether the BCCI has received any money from the international body for the events it hosted. “The COA by engaging with other member countries of the ICC directly without advertence to the members or the office-bearers has seriously jeopardised BCCI’s position in the ICC at the outset and has subsequently botched up the affairs to reduce BCCI to insignificance in the ICC apart from causing financial loss. The members ask the COA if the ICC has paid the BCCI’s share of revenue for the ICC events that have taken place. If no, what steps have been taken to recover the share of the BCCI.”

Prominent stats units that did not take part in the meeting were Mumbai, Maharashtra, Vidarbha, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Jharkhand. Acting BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary  also stayed away.