With no tangible action forthcoming from the Finance Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the matter related to the revision of contract and pay structure for the national team players, and for the domestic men and women cricketers, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) are determined to find a solution to the long-pending matter by themselves very soon.
READ: Will the CoA check on BCCI tenure?
The CoA believes that matter is above the Finance Committee, but a compelling reason that has exhorted it to go ahead with its own plan was that the IPL season 11 is set to start in April and the contracted players must have the benefit of insurance cover.
"There should not be a situation wherein an India player gets injured and there is no contract and thereby insurance cover,’’ said a person privy to discussions that took place at the CoA meeting at the Cricket Centre here on Tuesday.
In the last one year, the CoA has had extensive conversations with former head coach Anil Kumble and captain Virat Kohli on the contract/pay structure for the national team. Kumble even made a power point presentation to the CoA and BCCI officials during last year’s IPL final in Hyderabad. After Kumble
quit the team management following differences with Kohli at the end of last year’s ICC Champions Trophy in England, the CoA has had further discussions with the present key members of the Indian squad.
The CoA is most likely to file its seventh status report to the Supreme Court, informing the latter that the present elected principal office bearers and vice-presidents have completed their three year term on March 1, 2018; all of them being elected following a Supreme Court directive at the 85th BCCI AGM in Chennai on March 2, 2015.
The Supreme Court by its order of January 2, 2017, removed Messrs. Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke as president and secretary of the BCCI and also said that the senior vice-president, C. K.Khanna and Jt. Secretary, Amitabh Choudhary will discharge the duties of the BCCI president and secretary. The status report would be filed after the Supreme Court’s Holi vacation.
It is a wish among the group of BCCI administrators who have been disqualified because they had attained the age of 70, that the head of the CoA Vinod Rai, who will soon turn 70, should step down. The Lodha Committee had recommended an age cap of 70 for BCCI administrators (validated by the Supreme Court) and the apex court, while appointing the CoA did not consider some cricketers in the panel because they had crossed the age of 70.
But people close to Rai believe that the former Comptroller and Auditor General of India has been named to head the CoA by the Supreme Court, and only the court can decide if Rai has to step down or not. Even Justice Lodha has gone on record that Rai turning 70 should not prevent him from continuing his role in the CoA in which former cricketer Diana Edulji is also a member. Ramachandra Guha and Vikram Limaye have, previously, resigned from the CoA for different reasons.
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