The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) CEO, Rahul Johri, has been pulled up by acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary for attending selection committee meeting of India's women's team for the New Zealand tour.
This comes a day after Johri drew ire from Committee of Administrators (CoA) member, Diana Edulji. While replying to the mail from Edulji, Johri had said that as CEO he was entitled to attend all meetings of the board and also compared his position to that of the acting secretary who is a convenor in all selection meetings.
This hasn't gone down well with Choudhary.
In an email to the CEO, the acting secretary said he was surprised that the Johri wanted the convenor of the meeting to sit out of the meeting as was expected of the CEO. He also made his surprise known as Johri had not marked him in the communication to Edulji while mentioning the role of the secretary.
“Considering you have referred to the role of secretary, BCCI in your communication it was only fair that these observations based on your reading of the law was also copied to me. Plainly, it was a conscious and deliberate act to abstain from doing so," Choudhary wrote.
“In your defence, you, an employee of the BCCI, have compared your role with that of an elected office bearer’s who is discharging functions of the secretary, BCCI as a consequence of Supreme Court order dated January 2, 2017 by stating – “The said restriction contained in Regulation 21 will also apply to the Secretary, BCCI.” I am still not able to comprehend how the convenor of a committee either sits out of the meeting or authenticates the team selection or records the minutes, if your reading of the concerned rule is indeed correct,” he wrote.
"You may like to get my instant view examined by the elaborate legal machinery at your service, while my rights to be represented legally are being trampled.
“Considering the huge burden of running the 91 year old BCCI on your shoulders, you have shown your lack of interest in clarifying your position any further when you say –“… I have clarified my stand sufficiently and have nothing further to add.” Despite such belief of having acted in accordance with the constitution you are still requested to let me know the answer to my query in the preceding paragraph,” he added.
Earlier, replying to Edulji, Johri had stated: "Regulation 21 of the BCCI Constitution is clear and unambiguous. Sub-Regulation (3) states that reports of the Cricket Committee shall be sent out to the CEO but the CEO shall not in any way be involved in the preparation, approval or amendment of the same. Thus the CEO is intended to be privy to all information and deliberations before the Selection Committee which will form part of the report. The restriction contained in the said regulation is not with regard to disclosure of information and/or confidentiality but with regards to CEO’s direct involvement in management of cricketing matters."
“In view of the fact (which has been clarified by me earlier) that I did not participate in any discussion or interfered or took part in any decision making at the selection committee meeting there is no question of me having breached Regulation 21 of the BCCI Constitution. The said restriction contained in Regulation 21 will also apply to the Secretary, BCCI,” he wrote.
He also brought to notice the direction of the CoA on March 15 last year wherein he was allowed to attend all meetings of all committees of the board.
“Paragraph 10 of the COA Directions dated 15 March 2018 states that the CEO shall be entitled to attend the meeting of all committees of the BCCI. Vide COA Direction dated 23 August 2018, the COA in Point G has expressly continued its directions dated 15 March 2018 and in Paragraph 2 clarified that Selection Committees would continue to function. In view of the above, I was tasked by the COA to attend the selection committee meeting. I believe that in view of the above clarification it is very clear that I have acted in accordance with the BCCI Constitution and the COA Directions and cannot be accused of any misconduct,” he wrote.
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