New Delhi: The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators in a surprise move has cancelled the New Area Development Programme (NADP) Committee meeting that was set to take place in Mumbai on May 27, the day of the final of the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League.
The NADP Committee has been active in ensuring the infrastructural growth of the game in regions where the game hasn’t yet made a mark in the country so that budding talent is tapped from every corner of the country. This after the Supreme Court on the recommendation of the Lodha Panel asked the board to look into development of cricket across all regions in the country, especially the North Eastern states.
Speaking to CricketNext, a senior BCCI official said that he was extremely surprised by the CoA’s decision to cancel the NADP Committee meeting as it was the direction of the Supreme Court and Lodha panel to develop cricket across all regions in the country.
“I feel that this is short-sighted, unfair and beyond the scope of their powers. In a way, they are obstructing the implementation of the Lodha reforms since the meeting’s purpose was obviously to take stock of the situation with regard to the North East and to chart a roadmap for the future of these soon-to-be full members. I think the COA felt that allowing this meeting to go on would weaken their repeated allegations in Court that the office bearers and members are obstructing the implementation of the reforms process, a contention which is clearly not true. Apart from implementation of the reforms process, the COA’s role is to supervise the administration of the BCCI, which means the supervision of the management of the day to day affairs. Nowhere does any order allow them to take decisions of a policy nature but it seems that the COA has thrown caution to the winds and are not overly concerned about the legal intricacies involved. This was not expected of Rai. If he had any confusion, he should have clarified this with the Supreme Court rather than assume an interpretation in order to assume power.
“The CoA has further said that the Task Force for the states and territories have been formed by them. But the NADP committee which was formed with the whole idea of looking into the infrastructure and development of the game in these regions wasn’t kept in loop. They shall now be informed of the decisions taken by the GM (Cricket Operations). This is almost like saying we cannot let BCCI take credit despite the genuine effort being taken by the board to abide by the suggestions of the Lodha committee,” he said.
The agenda of the meeting, as per the mail in possession of CricketNext, was to review and follow-up on earlier decisions taken in the NADP Committee meetings as also to discuss and decide on further steps for proper conduct of cricket in the North Eastern states. The committee was also to approve the minutes of the meeting of the committee on April 3 at the Eden Gardens.
In a mail addressed to members of the NADP committee, in possession with Cricketnext, the CoA said that the proposed meeting of the NADP committee had been sought to be convened in violation of the directions issued by the CoA inasmuch as prior approval of the committee was not sought in terms of paragraph 10.
Paragraph 10 of the directions dated March 15, 2018 issued by the COA states: “Notice of any meeting of any committee/ sub-committee or the General Body of the BCCI shall be issued only with the prior approval of the Committee of Administrators. While seeking such approval, the convener of the relevant committee/ sub-committee and/or the Acting President/ Acting Secretary, as the case may be, shall also provide a draft notice and draft agenda for the proposed meeting. The CEO shall be entitled to be present in any such meeting. All decisions taken during such meeting should be intimated by the chairman of the meeting to the Committee of Administrators and the CEO in form of draft minutes of meeting as soon as possible after the said meeting. No decisions taken during such meeting shall be acted upon and/or implemented without the prior approval of the Committee of Administrators.”
With the next hearing set to take place next on July 5, the BCCI could bring the matter up with the apex body to inform them of the CoA’s attempt to stop the BCCI from trying to abide by the instructions of the Supreme Court.
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