CoA documentation: A good practice the new BCCI set-up could follow

The CoA met for the first time on February 1, 2017 and since have posted in all 118 items on the BCCI website.

The CoA on most occasions made it a point to highlight the Supreme Court order that said the body shall supervise the management of BCCI through its CEO.

One of the positive developments of the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), especially that benefited the cricket media was, information being posted on the BCCI website on a regular basis.

There were many instances of news being conveyed selectively to reporters doing the cricket and in particular the BCCI beat, but the CoA’s decision to put everything in the public domain was a good practice that gave primacy to transparency and accountability.

The new BCCI administration that will come into existence from October 23, under Sourav Ganguly and Jay Shah, would do well to disseminate news through its website, now redesigned.

It was on January 2, 2017 that the Supreme Court, decided to put in place the CoA.

The apex court asked senior counsel Fali Nariman and amicus in the BCCI case then, Gopal Subramaniam to nominate persons for the CoA. Mr. Nariman was replaced by another senior counsel Anil B. Divan.

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And on January 30, the apex court named Vinod Rai (Retd, CAG of India), Diana Edulji (former India captain), Ramchandra Guha (writer and cricket historian) and Vikram Limaye (MD and CEO, IDFC Ltd) as the four members. Guha and Limaye quit and following differences of opinion on many matters between Rai and Diana, the apex court named the third member in Lt. Gen. (Retd) Ravi Thodge eight months ago.

The CoA met for the first time on February 1, 2017 and since have posted in all 118 items on the BCCI website, all ranging from minutes of the meetings, directions to the BCCI office bearers and State Associations, but what generally was useful to the media was the Status Reports it submitted to the Supreme Court. Recently it submitted the 11th Status Report.

Apart from the CoA documentation, details of membership of the State Associations, amicus curiae documentation, information related to the Ombudsman and Ethics Officer’s office and more recently from the Electoral Officer’s office were also posted on the BCCI website, thus giving away plenty of information that interested the media and public alongside the BCCI members. The Indian Cricketers Association (ICA) website also became a useful source of information.

Most often the CoA was vilified for going beyond the mandate it received from the Supreme Court , but CoA on most occasions made it a point to highlight the Supreme Court order that said the CoA shall supervise the management of BCCI through its CEO and also that "the CoA shall also ensure that the directions contained in the judgment of this Court dated 18 July 2016 are fulfilled and to adopt all necessary and consequential steps for that purpose."

The CoA has asked the Supreme Court to discharge it from its duties on October 23. Sure enough, some will miss the three individuals who were part of the CoA.