Sundar Raman: I will demit office this week

According to sources, Sundar Raman put in his papers soon after the election of Shashank Manohar as president of the BCCI at the Special General Meeting in Mumbai on October 4.

File picture of the Indian Premier League Chief Operating Officer, Sundar Raman (left), with the former BCCI secretary, Sanjay Patel (centre) and Ranjib Biswal at a press conference in Mumbai. There have been allegations that Raman was in touch with a bookie during the 2013 IPL.

The Chief Operating Officer of the Indian Premier League, Sundar Raman, said on Tuesday that he would demit office this week.

“I have been serving my notice period for some time now. I will be available to them (BCCI/IPL) whenever they require me, but I will demit office this week. They (BCCI) wanted to stabilise things, and this has been going on for four to five weeks. The BCCI president (Shashank Manohar) is not well and hence, I went to Nagpur yesterday to get his signature on tenders and other documents,” said Raman to Sportstar .

Sources said Raman put in his papers soon after the election of Mr. Manohar as president of the BCCI at the Special General Meeting in Mumbai on October 4.

The BCCI chief has said on many occasions that Raman should resign because the Supreme Court had asked the three-man committee comprising Justices R. M. Lodha, Ashok Bhan and R. V. Raveendran “to examine his (Raman’s) role with or without further investigation into his activities, and if found guilty, impose a suitable punishment upon him on behalf of the BCCI.’’

There have been allegations that Raman was in touch with a bookie during the 2013 IPL, and the Supreme Court said in January 2015 that the “allegations levelled against BCCI’s COO, Sundar Raman, cannot go un-probed and that truth must be brought to light”.

A very senior BCCI representative from a traditional cricket playing State said: “He (Sundar Raman) can be said to be one of the best executives employed by the BCCI. There may have been differences of opinion, but he worked for the interest of the Board. He’s a qualified person. When the broadcaster (Star India) expressed an interest to pull out of the Champions League Twenty20, Sundar negotiated hard and got a massive compensation money for the Board.’’

At the last Working Committee meeting in Mumbai, the members were told that the BCCI would receive Rs. 617 crore as CLT20 compensation money and that half of it will be disbursed to 25 affiliated units.

The BCCI members know that the Board will receive 22 per cent of the revenue to be earned by the ICC during the 2016-2023 cycle. The BCCI will receive another four per cent after expenses are paid. This works out to an income of around Rs. 4000 crore to the BCCI, based on the projected estimates for the seven-year cycle.

Employed as Managing Director of Mindshare, Raman was brought into the IPL in 2008 by its first Chairman, Lalit Modi. After the BCCI banned Modi in 2010, the new administration retained him.

If the IPL has been a success, members claim it is largely due to the combined efforts of the IMG and Raman. “All the BCCI members will benefit because of Raman’s work; no one in the Board can deny this,’’ said an official.