The first involved the naming of former players Kapil Dev and Anshuman Gaekwad to the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC).Difference of opinion over the interpretation of constitutional clauses at Friday’s meeting in New Delhi attended by BCCI’s Committee of Administrators (COA) and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rahul Johri might result in two crucial decisions getting referred to legal experts.
The first involved the naming of former players Kapil Dev and Anshuman Gaekwad to the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), formed to pick India’s head coach.
Those in the know say that while the rest agreed to their appointment and even decided to make it public, one of the CoA member and former India captain, Diana Edulji, raised the ‘conflict of interest’ and ‘one man, one post’ clause pointing to the presence of Kapil and Gaekwad’s in the steering committee form to BCCI-approved players’ body, the Indian Cricketers Association (ICA).
Edulji, it is learnt, said that once the extent of official involvement of the two former players’ was clear, the case can be referred to legal experts. She also stressed that Kapil took commentary assignments which also amounted to conflict of interest.
The second issue that didn’t see a consensus among those at the meeting was related to the picking of the support staff for the Indian team. While the CoA were of the view that the appointment of an assistant to the head coach was the discretion of the national selectors, Johri stated the new constitution gave him the power to make these appointments.
Rule 24 of BCCI’s constitution, which deals with the CEO’s powers says: “To appoint team Officials for the Indian teams which shall compulsorily include qualified coaches, managers, physiotherapists, nutritionists, trainers, analyst, counselors and medics.” However, what made this a contentious point was the other clause of the constitution which states that the CEO has no role to play in the appointment of support staff in junior and women’s teams. For these teams, it is the selection committee that is empowered to take the final decision.
Sources said that at the Friday’s meeting, the CoA were of the view that it was the chairman of national selectors, MSK Prasad, and his committee who would pick the support staff. The COA asked its legal team to look into it and clear the issue.
Few weeks ago BCCI’s Ethics officer DK Jain, in its order, had ruled that several former players and television pundits were flouting the Supreme Court-appointed Justice R M Lodha panel conflict of interest recommendations since they were officially associated with the BCCI or the IPL. Jain had leaned on the “one man, one post” clause to come to this decision.
Rathour appointment on hold Former India opener Vikram Rathour’s appointment as the National Cricket Academy’s (NCA) batting consultant has being put on hold. This is again because of the conflict of interest since Rathour is related to the junior selection committee member Ashish Kapoor. It is learnt that the general manager cricket operation Saba Karim has been asked to pick the second best candidate for the job.
Post suspension, Zim to tour India next year: ICC
Mumbai: The ICC has clarified to the BCCI that Zimbabwe’s next year’s tour to India was on despite the recent suspension of the African nation. The Indian Express understands that the world body has conveyed this clarification to the BCCI chief executive officer Rahul Johri.
During Friday’s meeting in New Delhi, Johri informed to the Committee of Administrators (CoA) that the series was on since it was a bilateral contest. “The Zimbabwe tour will be played as per schedule since ICC has cleared the air. Their suspension is only for ICC events,” BCCI sources said. Zimbabwe is scheduled to play three T20’s in January 2020 in Guwahati, Indore and Pune. At ICC’s Annual Conference in London last week, Zimbabwe Cricket was suspended with immediate effect because of the governmental interference. “The full-time member failed to fulfil their obligation to provide a process for free and democratic elections and to ensure that there is no government interference in its administration for cricket,” the ICC had said in a statement.
ICC chairman Shashank Manohar said: “We do not take the decision to suspend a Member lightly, but we must keep our sport free from political interference. What has happened in Zimbabwe is a serious breach of ICC’s constitution and we cannot allow it to continue.”
