BCCI confused about intervention; Govt says it can

New Delhi, July 29: It's not easy to decide who is to be believed in the Indian cricket board. On one hand, you have the BCCI secretary, J...

New Delhi, July 29: It’s not easy to decide who is to be believed in the Indian cricket board. On one hand, you have the BCCI secretary, Jayawant Lele saying, "We are an autonomous body. We are not under any pressure from the sports ministry. We will finalise the code of conduct and submit it to the Government." The tongue-in-cheek treasurer Kisohre Rungta, whose house was raided by the IT department only recently, contradicts this: "We will meet on August 19 after taking suggestions from the Government to finalise the code."

The confusion doesn’t end here. The Minister of State for Sports, Shanawaz Hussain, while asserting that the government had every justification to be involved in the matter, asks: "Who is Lele? We have to answer questions in the parliament. We are accountable to the people."

The BCCI officials were meeting in the city to discuss the modalities of the proposed Code of Conduct for players and finalise the draft code, the "vision report" of which will first be put forward to the Union Sports Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa on August 1 and then ratified. It is expected to be enforced from the Sahara Cup Indo-Pakistan series at Toronto in September.

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Today’s double-speak apart, Lele had no clue as to whether the government had given its go-ahead for the Indian team’s participation in the Sahara Cup.

Strangely, two of the three members, D Subha Rao and Ashok Kumbhat, chose to skip the sitting and Lele had to substitute for them. Rungta said that they would deliberate on the draft code before it is presented to the Board’s bigwigs, including president AC Muthiah, former chief Raj Singh Dungarpur and former International Cricket Council president Jagmohan Dalmiya.

"We will discuss the code thoroughly. It might take more time and we may have to continue tomorrow to finalise it," Rungta said.

The special committee first met in Mumbai on July 24, but could not finalise the draft code proposals for players, umpires and officials necessitating a second sitting.

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V B subba Rao is to arrive here tomorrow, while Tamil nadu’s ashok kumbhat is to undergo bypass surgery on August 4, rungta said.

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