COA Cautions BCCI For Serving Legal Complaint To ICC
May 3, 2017 at 2:53 PM
In what could be termed as a word of caution, Committee of Administrators (COA), which is monitoring the proceedings of the national cricket body; Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has insisted the members of the board should not serve the legal notice to world cricket governing body International Cricket Council (ICC) as the board is scheduled to hold a meeting on Sunday (May 7).
Following the fallout in ICC crucial meeting last week, the office bearers will further discuss the ICC’s decisions and defending champions India’s participation in the upcoming Champions Trophy which will kick start in England and Wales from June 1.
“All letters, notices and other correspondence on behalf of the BCCI which seek to invoke or exercise any rights/remedies under the Members Participation Agreement entered into between the BCCI and the ICC Business Corporation FZ-LLC shall only be issued with the prior approval of the Committee of Administrators,” COA was quoted by the Hindu.
It becomes pertinent here that Rai won’t be available for the SGM as BCCI CEO Rahul Johri will hold the meeting alongside board members of the body.
With the changing dynamics, the speculations were at high before COA intervened into the matter as it is highly unlikely that BCCI will take any extreme step which not only will see powerful cricket board being isolated, but the cricket crazy nation might miss out the major ICC events which come under the governance of MPA.
BCCI will miss out ICC Champions Trophy before losing the rights to host and equally play any of the events until the 2023 cycle which starts from 2016 if they happen to challenge the MPA.
“The direction in Paragraph 1 above shall also apply to letters, notices and other correspondence which seek to invoke or exercise any rights/remedies against the International Cricket Council,” the note from COA added.
The reports suggested that the members of State Cricket Associations have agreed to send the legal notice to the world body after reaching the mutual agreement.
However, COA which is headed by Vinod Rai has quashed the speculations which were at high by declaring through an email that notice couldn’t be dispatched without the consent of Supreme Court-appointed committee.
Rai has made it clear by stating the notice could be sent to the board only after all 30 associations in the country would reach the unanimous decision during the Special General Body (SGM) meet.
The decision came to the forth that the legal complaint was planned to be lodged following the implementation of the Members Participation Agreement (MPA) as the members have shown the discontent directly after BCCI was outvoted in the Board meeting, in last month over the new finance redistribution model and governance system.
“He [Rai] advised them that it was not in the best interests of BCCI because Shashank Manohar has made an offer of a $100 million more. You send him a notice, his attitude will harden. He might withdraw that,” the official privy to the conversation was quoted by ESPNcrincinfo.
According to the report, sacked BCCI president has also been in conversation with Vinod Rai and echoed the words of some BCCI members, who wanted to send a legal notice to the ICC, as per acting BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary.