Aditya Verma, the secretary of the Cricket Assocition of Bihar (CAB), has lodged a complaint with the Board’s Ombudsman A. P. Shah that the BCCI’s joint secretary, Amitabh Choudhary, has conflict of interest and wanted it to be looked into.
Ombudsman Shah, on his part, has given BCCI time till February 20 to file its reply to the CAB secretary’s complaint, said Verma at a media conference here today after distributing the copy of his complaint to Shah and the latter’s communication granting time to the Board to respond.
Verma, in his communication to Shah, has said that the question of recognition of the CAB and rival body Bihar Cricket Association was pending before the Supreme Court.
“It is also brought to your kind attention that the dispute over the recognition of the Cricket Association of Bihar is related to the recognition accorded to the Jharkhand Cricket Association, whose president, Amitabh Choudhary, is currently the Joint Secretary of the Board,” Verma has written.
Verma has pointed out sweeping reforms in the BCCI’s structure, requiring a full member from each state, recommended by the apex court-appointed Justice R M (retired) Lodha Committee and the direction of the Supreme Court to the Board to file its reply about their implementation on March 3.
“Despite all these events, it is submitted that some members of the BCCI, namely K V P Rao and Prof Ratnakar Shetty, gave media bytes to the efffect that the Associate Membership was being accorded to the faction of the Bihar Cricket Association led by Shri Abdul Bari Siddiqui,” Verma has written to the Ombudsman.
“It is submitted, this was presumably done at the instance of Amitabh Choudhary, since the issue of recognition of the Cricket Association of Bihar is in direct interest to him. Since Choudhary is the Joint Secretary of the BCCI, he renders considerably influence on the decisions of the Board, and he is in a direct conflict of interest in the present matter,” Verma has written in his complaint to Ombudsman Shah.
“It is submitted that BCCI (is) holding the monopoly in administration of cricket in India and performing the functions of the State and thus has a duty to act in a fair manner,” Verma said in his complaint.
Even as the BCCI’s Special General Meeting, which has been convened tomorrow, is all set to discuss the implementation of the Justice (retired) R M Lodha Committee report, Verma, the petitioner in the conflict of interest case in the Supreme Court on whose petition N Srinivasan was asked by the apex court to step down as the Board President, beseeched the Board to accept them in toto.
“It comes as a surprise to see the BCCI offer any resistance to the recommendations made by the Committee headed by former Chief Justice Lodha, especially when they had orally undertaken to the Supreme Court that they would follow the recommendations given by Justice Lodha,” said Verma in a media release.
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