BCCI slaps notice on HCA

According to some members this was the only significant decision to be made at this weekend’s working committee meeting, in which serious matters lasted less than 25 minutes. Some members got highly exercised over the issue saying that in future no member would seek the Board’s permission before conducting an international tournament. Interestingly, Punjab and Orissa have sought, and got permission, from the Board to conduct tournaments next year to mark 50 years of Independence.

The other decision was to appoint Ahmed Salim as manager for the tours of Toronto and Pakistan. Interestingly, the same meeting ratified the selection of Prof Ratnakar Shetty as manager to Sri Lanka. Appointments of managers can be done by the Board president and ratified at the next meeting. But in this case, the Board spent nearly Rs 15 lakhs in inviting 31 members and putting them up at a five-star hotel.

The meeting, many members contend, was held basically to make two amendments which would have given Jagmohan Dalmiya unparalled powers in Indian cricket.

One of the amendments wanted the current president and all ex-presidents of the International Cricket Conference (ICC) to be a permanent member of the Working committee. Since the ICC presidents will be decided by rotation and India’s next turn will probably be after at least 30 years, Dalmiya would be a member of the Working Committee for life.

The second amendment sought the creation of a Trust of an advisory capacity which would include former Board presidents. This would effectively rule out former Presidents from holding any positions in the BCCI. It was again something which the members did not find to their liking and hence did not even bring up for discussion.

Since the mood of the meeting was set by a section of the members who wanted to pull up Hyderabad Cricket Association — Dalmiya was the Board secretary when the tournament was held — the pro-Dalmiya group, which had come prepared to discuss amendments which would have made him a permanent member of the Working committee, beat a hasty retreat. Since, such amendments require two-thirds majority, they were not even discussed in the AGM which too lasted for less than 20 minutes.

Also other tenuous matters like rotation of international venue were also put off and committees formed to discuss the issue at a later date.

One more query, although a formality, too was left without being ratified — nomination of Dalmiya as India’s representative to be ICC President. It may be recalled, that Dalmiya had only been given permission to contest the election for ICC Chairmanship, but once that position was re-designated with re-defined powers as ICC president no official communique vis-a-vis Dalmiya was issued. The Board President has written a letter to the ICC to the effect that Dalmiya is India’s choice for ICC President. But, technically, it still needs be ratified by the general body!