Howzat! Sacked selectors Gagan Khoda and Jatin Paranjpe still get paid

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been compensating in full two sacked senior national selectors Gagan Khoda and Jatin Paranjpe despite not being in the committee for a while now.

With the ongoing tussle between the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) and BCCI officials refusing to reach any conclusion, Khoda and Paranjpe — both removed from the selection panel in January this year as per the recommendations of Justice Lodha panel — have been getting paid according to their original contract, and will continue to be paid.

This is not all. Even the two junior selectors — Ashish Kapoor and Amit Sharma — are being fully paid in the absence of any legal termination letter issued to them by the BCCI.

A senior selector gets paid Rs 60 lakh per year while it is Rs 40 lakh per year for the junior committee member.

Paranjpe and Khoda were removed as selectors for not being Test cricketers as was the requirement set by the Lodha panel.

DNA has reliably learnt that all these started after BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry took up the matter of paying all BCCI-contracted staff as annual AGM was getting delayed due to the ongoing hearing in the Apex court.

It was then decided by COA to clear all payments till September 2017, the month when AGM usually takes place. However, it was Chaudhry again who cited the last AGM's decision to pay these selectors till the "next AGM".

"Supreme Court has not passed any observation regarding the last BCCI AGM and any decision taken inside the meeting continues to be valid," Chaudhry pointed out.

It was then rectified again by COA to keep paying all 10 selectors – five each in senior and junior panels – till the time the next AGM takes place.

"Look at the irony. Three selectors are working and getting paid while the other two, who were sacked in January itself by COA to abide by Justice Lodha recommendation of trimming the selection panel to three from five, are being paid the same amount for doing nothing," said a senior BCCI official on Sunday, adding: "There's no exit clause in the contract and the selectors should be compensated for the rest of their contract period."

Chaudhry has apparently put the blame on BCCI CEO Rahul Johri for acting in a haste without bothering to look into the BCCI rule book.

"It was not in CEO's jurisdiction to sack selectors when AGM had appointed them at that time," Chaudhry has reportedly written to the COA.

In fact, all these four selectors in question now have also acted carefully after being 'sacked' by the BCCI in January 2017. It has been learnt that none of them have got engaged in any other contract or office of profit to avoid any possible conflict of interest issue.

"They have (selectors) never been handed any termination letter by BCCI. So, their contracts offered by BCCI AGM last September are still very much valid in this case," was how the source added.

Junior selector Kapoor was also offered a job of commentator by a TV channel in between, but he turned it down because of this particular reason.