The COA reiterated that they don’t want to stop the BCCI committees from functioning unless it conflicts with the duties and decisions of COA, in which case, they would be compelled to interfere. (Source: File Photo)
The chairman of SC appointed Committee of Administrators, Vinod Rai, tells The Indian Express about the challenges, obstacles and high-points of his two-year stint, from the controversy involving the selection of national coach last year to the revised pay-structure for players and the miscommunication between the CoA and BCCI regarding ICC meetings.
In your time at the helm of BCCI, what has been the biggest positive and your highest obstacle?
The biggest positive is that the Supreme Court has done a 360-degree consultation with all interested parties to ensure that administration of cricket becomes clean. They have also taken CoA’s view on it. The court instructed Amicus Curiae Gopal Subramaniam to prepare a draft constitution. Twice it has been referred to the office-bearers for their comments. Now, the comments have come in, so the biggest positive is we are expecting that the court, in one or two hearings, clears the constitution and we start our work going forward.
What’s the kind of pressure on you in dealing with this churning?
One has been through life dealing with all kinds of people, so there was no pressure. The only thing I find surprising is I did not ever believe the vested interest would be so deep. It’s is so abiding that they are ready to go to any extent. By extent I mean, the biggest danger for each one of us is to take on the might of the apex court of the land and that means running the risk of contempt of court. There must be something very deep (vested interest) since they are taking this big a risk.
Since the CoA hasn’t had too much experience in cricket administration, did they try to confuse you guys?
The BCCI at no point of time has had a professional set-up; that’s because part-time office-bearers were performing executive roles. Take the National Cricket Academy (NCA). We have put in a professional there not because of his cricketing experience but because of his experience in putting up projects.
Don’t you think the CoA has over-indulged the players — be it the coach selection, yo-yo test, players’ payment hike …
Let me ask you a counter question. Why does the BCCI exist? Because 11 people go and play in the stadium. BCCI gets Rs 16,350 crore for media rights because of Virat Kohli and his team. Now why shouldn’t the players’ interests be protected? If a player gets Rs 3 crore per annum and he meets an Australian or England player and hears ‘oh man, I get 12 crore’. And we are the richest board in the country. We addressed it to the extent that you call over-indulged. We talked to players, team management, coach and I had a very detailed discussion with the Cricket Advisory Committee. You may be right when you say they have been over-indulged.
What about the selection of the coach?
First they picked a few candidates for interview, later they invited fresh application without keeping the CoA in loop, eventually the captain gets the coach he wants. We got to know about the coach issue on the first day of the IPL, that was in April last year. We were told that the coach’s tenure was expiring. We were told about the selection process that was followed the previous year, we got to know that the committee recommended a two-year contract for Anil Kumble. But only one year was given to him. We decided that we will go through the CAC process again and Kumble will be an automatic candidate and he shouldn’t apply. I spoke to CAC, they agreed. We asked for names and some 6 to 7 names were passed to CAC. They did due diligence. By which I mean, they are distinguished former players and they know the players very well. If there is a problem in the team they know it, if there is a problem between x and y they know.
Ram Guha spoke about the superstar culture. Here was a case of captain deciding who the coach will be?
He had a point of view which I respect. Captain vs coach has played out earlier too, as recently as Greg Chappell vs Sourav Ganguly. Irrespective of the merit of the captain or the merit of the coach, I told the CAC that there should be cohesion in the dressing room. Where the team is one side, the coach on the other side, it isn’t good. They agreed. You tell me if it is between the captain and the coach, who will we go for? It is the captain who is on the ground, so I had no option but to support the captain. And I would like to believe, there is harmony in the dressing room, the team is doing well.
But there were some debatable long-term decisions. For example, Champions Trophy being changed to World T20. Now BCCI secretary Amitabh Chaudhary says it was CEO Rahul Johri’s decision.
Ultimately, it is votes that matter in ICC. There are emails that show that this issue was decided by the ICC Board and not by the Chief Executive Committee. There is a recorded email from Johri to the ICC secretary that shows our stand—that we support Champions Trophy and we want to continue with it. I read in the papers that the CEO should have advised about the agenda. But the agenda doesn’t come to the CEO. Secondly, if you belong to an organisation and you don’t head it and you are going for a meeting, wouldn’t you take a briefing from the organisation about what stand you will take? The agenda was not shared with us, no mandate was taken from us. I actually came to know about Champions Trophy from the ICC press release.
Since the CoA will be around for a while, will the office-bearers have to share the agenda with you to avoid miscommunication and confusion?
Already, I have done it. He (Chaudhary) is going for the ICC meeting this week and he will have to share the agenda. I can’t take a chance again. Three years later, it will be very easy to say that in CoA’s time, the Champions Trophy was gone. Now he will take our mandate and he will come back and jolly well give the minutes of the discussion.
So was this decision taken after the Champions Trophy fiasco?
Yes and believe me, you can put it down in writing. If he doesn’t follow that, he will not represent the BCCI at the ICC despite the court saying so. Because I will go to the court and say that he has failed in doing so. We have never thrust a decision on the BCCI. I consult the office-bearers—check records and see how many meetings we have had with the office-bearers or the IPL governing council. All decisions are by consensus.
Do you agree that CoA are here just to implement reforms nothing else?
I will give you the extract from court order that says: ‘CoA will supervise the administration of the BCCI, the office bearers will function under the supervision of CoA’. That is number one; plus ‘CoA will take steps to implement the Supreme Court verdict’. Amitabh Chaudhary has said that there is no scope for emotions, we have to work under the CoA. Finally, it has dawned on him after a long time.