BCCI won't cede in confrontation with COA over SGM

There seems to be an unanimous view within Indian cricket board (BCCI) which seems in no mood to cede ground in its confrontation with the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) regarding its right to hold Special General Body Meeting (SGM) in Delhi on June 22 to take decisions related to Indian cricket's interests.

On the other hand, COA has started behaving like a school principal and decided to discipline its misbehaved children by issuing diktats of not entertaining any invoices (TA-DA bills) raised by the state unit officials with regards to the proposed SGM. COA is upset that "no permission has been sought as per a March 15 guidelines", but top BCCI officials now are asking "to mind his own work of implementing SC orders than becoming a beat constable".

It must be mentioned here that even during the peak of BCCI case fought inside the SC in 2014 and then in 2016, SC bench allowed Board members to go ahead with the AGM "in order to carry on with cricket related issues".

"No where in the SC orders till date COA has been directed to stop BCCI from conducing important business which involves important issues like 'remunerations to domestic players, match officials or matters pertaining to commercial rights and sponsorships of the BCCI or to consider and to take decisions on matters pertaining to revenues and the Members Participation Agreement in the ICC," BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary told DNA.

In his email addressed to COA on Saturday, Choudhary has explained the entire sequence how SGM was called and why the committee has no right to undermined the status of General Body. "The Committee (COA) has misconstrued the said SC orders and instead of focusing on its primary duty, i.e. ensuring the smooth implementation of the reforms, has been focused on devising ways and means to get rid of the office bearers and even undermine the status of the General Body," Choudhary wrote in his email.

Another BCCI official also sided with Choudhary on convening the SGM, saying that COA has been misled by legal team (Amarchand & Mangaldas) on the behest of CEO Rahul Johri. "COA must understand that this SGM has been requisited by state associations. And there is difference between requisition and request. If BCCI secretary don't act on this requisition demanded as per constitution by 10 or more members (15 in this case wrote to acting president), they can very well go ahead and convene this SGM on their own," the official said.

Going by SGM agenda, there are about 10 issues that the members want to discuss and prominent among them are revenue sharing dispute with the ICC, running of NCA by the cricket operations team and various appointments made by the Human Resources team. Going by the agenda of SGM, it looks as if most of the members are against India signing the Members Participation Agreement (MPA) on the current terms and condition during the upcoming ICC meet starting on June 25.

The members are convinced that the COA has spared no effort in damaging India's reputation as leading cricket nation and if proper safeguards related to bilateral series for future are not taken now, India stand to lose its dominant position in world cricket.

"BCCI needs to look at revenue and reputation loss that could happen if signed on present term and condition. That's why most of us are concerned about MPA and if proper safeguards are not taken then BCCI may be staring at paying huge penalty in coming years," said the official, adding: "Don't forget that commercial rights have already been sold without keeping state bodies or even the office-bearers informed."