MP Pandove in a Catch 22 situation

Not many changes are expected in the power structure of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at its AGM here on September 29.

All the current office-bearers and vice-presidents (barring, of course, a certain Lalit Modi), are expected to extend their tenure by one year. But the sailing may not be as smooth for MP Pandove.

Not that anyone is in a hurry to file a nomination against him but the treasurer is in a sort of Catch 22 situation.

Being close to IS Bindra, currently a persona-non-grata in the BCCI, Pandove has attracted avoidable attention from a section of the BCCI’s officialdom. There is talk about the untenability of his continuation as treasurer.

Known for his impeccable integrity and honesty, Pandove too isbelieved to be brooding over the matter. He is the secretary of Punjab Cricket Association which is headed by Bindra. More pertinently, one of the vice-presidents of the PCA is Modi.
A joke making rounds in the Board circle is that if the PCA were to be asked to pay certain unpaid bills of Modi, what hat Pandove will wear — will he support the decision as its treasurer or oppose it as PCA secretary. It is a different issue that a Modi aide says that the suspended IPL chairman will clear all the bills if it were to be sent to him.

A more important point is that the current dispensation is engaged in an all-out war against Modi whose only aide in the Board is Bindra. Being close to the former BCCI president, Pandove would have to go out of the way to prove his loyalties. Board sources say a message had been sent to Bindra through him some time back and since then the ICC’s principal advisor has not been attending the Board meetings. He was conspicuous by his absence at Sunday’s IPL Governing Council meeting.

Pandove denied when asked if he was contemplating stepping down. “We’re a family. All the talk of my resigning is kite-flying,” the former Punjab captain told DNA. When the same question was put to a top Board official, there was no denial. “I will leave it to the members of the general body,” he remarked.