The apex council of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) preferred to play the waiting game on the numerous issues surrounding Indian cricket during a marathon four-hour meeting on Friday.
While none of the office-bearers was available for an official reaction, Sportstar understands that the Indian men’s team’s revised FTP and domestic cricket schedule, two crucial issues on the agenda, have been postponed for finalisation.
While it was discussed that the domestic season could not start before December, as reported by this publication on Friday, the council decided to wait for the government advice regarding resumption of international cricket.
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Even though the fate of the Indian Premier League wasn’t on the agenda, the issue was discussed with the United Arab Emirates being an alternate venue in case the T20 World Cup in October-November is postponed and the Indian government allows the BCCI to stage the IPL overseas.
With the pandemic far from subsiding in the country, the apex council is understood to have discussed Dubai (UAE), Ahmedabad and Dharamshala as possible venues for the training camp of the national team, should the government give a go-ahead for the players to resume training after a prolonged break.
One of the main reasons behind the apex council refraining from taking a firm decision on any of the topics is due to the uncertainty surrounding the legality of the meeting in itself. According to the Supreme Court-directed administrative reforms of the BCCI, secretary Jay Shah is supposed to have vacated his post at the start of the month, while Ganguly will have to relinquish it at month-end since both are required to serve cooling-off period of three years.
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While the BCCI has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking amendment of the rulebook, the Comptroller & Auditor General nominee Alka Rehani Bharadwaj in a letter last week had demanded only “eligible” members should be allowed to attend and the joint-secretary Jayesh George should convene the meeting.
It is understood that Bharadwaj raised the same issue at the start of the meeting since Shah convened it. It was apparently informed to her that since the BCCI has filed a petition in the apex court and there is no provision of resignation in the existing rulebook, the office-bearers can continue to hold office till the court clears the air.
Interestingly, the BCCI petition, filed in April, is yet to be admitted by the Supreme Court. Moreover, according to the rulebook, the apex council is required to call for an election through an SGM “within 45 days” of a post being vacated. Besides Shah, it’s been well over two months since Mahim Verma resigned as vice-president.
To add to the muddle, CAG last week has filed an interlocutory application, requesting Supreme Court to make suitable amendments and recuse CAG nominee from being a part of the BCCI and state association apex council.
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