Vinod Rai, who heads the Supreme Court-appointed committee of administrators, speaks to the media
The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) overseeing the functioning of the BCCI has barred the board from conducting a Special General Meeting (SGM), scheduled for June 22.
On Thursday, Amitabh Choudhary, the acting secretary of the BCCI, had issued a notice calling for the SGM, listing a 10-point agenda for the board’s member associations to discuss. On Friday the CoA wrote a letter to the BCCI and its member units saying Choudhary’s notice was in violation of the CoA’s directions to the board since he had not sought the two-member panel’s approval before calling for the SGM. The approval, the CoA said, was “neither sought nor provided”.
“Till further instructions from the COA, it is directed that no BCCI employee/ consultant/ retainer/ service provider shall prepare and/or circulate any papers in respect of the said SGM or in any way act further to or in aid of the notice (including without limitation incurring any costs or expenses towards the said SGM by way of bookings, etc.),” the CoA stated in its letter.
The top issue on the agenda related to the enhanced player contracts and the doubling of match fees to match officials. Choudhary had alleged that the CoA had left him and the two other main office bearers out of the loop before finalising the list of contracted players for 2017-18.
Another was “matters pertaining to the ICC including but not limited to revenues and the Members Participation Agreement”. Following last year’s ICC Board meeting, in which the BCCI was outvoted on changes to the world body’s finance model – which effectively ended the Big Three era – a section of the Indian board had come close to sending a legal notice to the ICC and threatening to pull out of the Champions Trophy, only for the CoA to step in and put the brakes on any such move. It is understood that one of the steps the BCCI had mulled was to revoke the Members Participation Agreement (MPA), which would have meant India pulling out of all ICC tournaments for the remainder of the rights cycle that stretches to 2023.
One more key point on the SGM agenda was: “Update on and to consider and decide on the matter relating to dispute raised by PCB in the ICC DRC.” In April, the ICC had constituted a three-member dispute panel to attempt to resolve the impasse between the BCCI and the Pakistan Cricket Board over two unplayed bilateral series between India and Pakistan.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo