BCCI Makeover to be main agenda at Working Committee meet

This being the first Working Committee meeting since April 26 (because the one of August 28 was adjourned) and taking place when the Justice R.M.Lodha commission is in the process of preparing a report on how the BCCI should function, Mr. Manohar will take the centre stage.

Shashank Manohar (left) was elected president at a special general meeting to fill the vacancy arising out of Jagmohan Dalmiya’s death.

The Working Committee of the BCCI at the Cricket Centre, Mumbai, will throw the first hints of how far the present dispensation led by Shashank Manohar and past president N. Srinivasan, have moved foward in order to clear doubts and differences between them.

The 58-year-old Nagpur lawyer, Mr. Manohar was elected president at a special general meeting fifteen days ago, to fill the vacancy arising out of Jagmohan Dalmiya’s death and immediately he articulated his views on the way forward for the BCCI to regain its reputation and win back the cricket fans’ respect; he also said his team will not work with vindictive attitude.

Mr. Srinivasan withdrew the offence of perjury case against the BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur the following day, which in a way resolved a tricky issue for the Board, and come out of an embarrassing situation wherein the BCCI vice-president T.C. Mathew, BCCI treasurer, Anirudh Chaudhary and Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) had filed supporting affidavits along with Mr. Srinivasan’s petition.

Probably not every word given to the Chennai camp was carried out by a section of powers that be in the BCCI before the Supreme Court, but Mr. Srinivasan - who will not represent the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association at the Working Committee meeting - gave indications of being ready to walk the extra mile in order to present a show of solidarity with Mr. Manohar who announced to carry sweeping measures in two month’s time to give the BCCI a complete makeover.

The Working Committee is the virtual decision making body of the Board, though not all the full members are represented in it; the five-presidents do not even have the right to vote unless they are representing their unit. Adjourned on August 28, because the late Dalmiya and his close aides were not sure if Mr. Srinivasan had come out of the conflict of interest situation following the decision of the Justice R.M. Lodha commission to suspend Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two years from the IPL, the Working Committee will proceed with routine matters of adopting reports of the standing and other sub-committees related to actual cricket, financial aspects and the treasurer’s report.

Pending IPL matters are also likely to be discussed, mainly the action to be taken on the report submitted by the four-man Rajeev Shukla IPL-GC working group. Shukla, who is the IPL GC Chairman, has said many times that the consensus is for an eight team tournament for IPL-9 and IPL-10. The two champion and popular teams – CSK and RR – have invested lot of money in the last eight years and the chances of further action by the BCCI in the form of ``terminating their franchise agreements’’ looks unlikely.

But it could be a different matter altogether about CSK’s valuation after the franchise was demerged from the India Cements group. The opinion of a number of legal experts on the ``entire process of demerger and its subsequent valuation of Rs. 5 lakh by CSK’’ is likely to be placed before the Working Committee. At the Working Committee meeting in New Delhi on April 26, Mr. Manohar (representing Vidarbha CA) had raised serious questions on the matter.

The Working Committee members will be given the latest status report on beverage major Pepsi pulling out of the title sponsorship of the IPL and the way to maintain the MOU signed with PCB for a series in the UAE in December. The house will also be informed of the bottle throwing incidents that interfered with the India – South Africa Twenty20 match at Cuttack, mainly the explanation given by the Odhisha Cricket Association. It’s now known how seriously the BCCI has taken to its representative – Team Manager Vinod Phadke --- being fined 40 per cent of the match fee by the ICC for airing views against the on-field umpire and thereby violating a code of conduct clause. The Working Committee will also finalise the date for its Annual General Meeting.

This being the first Working Committee meeting since April 26 (because the one of August 28 was adjourned) and taking place when the Justice R.M.Lodha commission is in the process of preparing a report on how the BCCI should function, Mr. Manohar will take the centre stage. Some of the points he made on October 5 has already been carried out. A week ago the BCCI appointed Deloitte, an audit, consulting and financial advisory company to present it a ``Project Transformation’’ report. The BCCI has already changed its tax consultant and internal auditor of ten years.