New body’s mantra: Professionalism

Meanwhile, as BCCI officials wasted no time in burying past issues-even the Chappell’s famous e-mail controversy will not be raised again-they also made it apparent that ‘‘professionalising the working of the board’’ would be the first step forward. An external agency is to be appointed to provide a suitable recommendation to this effect. Also in place will be a legal cell, a media committee, a constitution review committee and a cricket development committee, soon.

The working committee also decided to reconstitute its marketing committee with Pawar back at the helm of affairs. The immediate priority for Pawar, now, is to clear the controversial telecast rights before the Indian team leaves for the tour of Pakistan, early next year. The new contracts for cricketers are also expected to be finalised before the series against Pakistan. The next important task on hand is to get the BCCI rid of the pending court cases in and outside the country, for which Pawar has authorised BCCI vice-president and legal expert Shashank Manohar along with leading lawyer Kapil Sibal.

Lastly, keeping in mind the end of the sponsorship deal with Sahara India last month, the working committee also announced that the new sponsors for the Indian team would be in finalised before the Pakistan tour.

Among other decisions, former Hyderabad off-spinner Shivlal Yadav will replace Brijesh Patel as the director of the Bangalore-based National Cricket Academy (NCA) while former India opener Lalchand Rajput will take over as the chief coach. Sunil Gavaskar would, however, continue to head the NCA. In an effort to provide themselves with better working conditions, the BCCI headquarters – which will remain in Mumbai – will now be shifted inside the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) premises.

The various committees

Legal: Shashank Manohar (chairman) and Kapil Sibal (plus one or two more to be decided later).

NCA: Sunil Gavaskar (chairman), Ajay Shirke (vice-chairman), Shivlal Yadav (director), Lalchand Rajput (coaching director), Ashok Bhagwat, Sunil Dev, Gopal Bose and all BCCI office-bearers as ex-officio members.

Constitution review: Shashank Manohar (chairman), I S Bindra, N Srinivasan, Lalit Modi, Arun Jaitley and Ratnakar Shetty.

Headquarters: I S Bindra, N Srinivasan, Niranjan Shah, Lalchand Rajput.

Marketing: Sharad Pawar, all five vice-presidents (Lalit Modi, Dayanand Narvekar, K P Kajaria, Chirayu Amin, Shashank Manohar), all office-bearers (secretary Niranjan Shah, joint secretary M P Pandove and treasurer N Srinivasan), I S Bindra, A C Muthiah and Ranbir Singh Mahendra.

Media: Rajiv Shukla (chairman), G S Walia (North), K L Balaji (South), Rajan Nair (Central), Milind Rege (West) and Raja Venkat (East). Convener: Niranjan Shah.

Grounds and pitches: Dhiraj Parsana (West), Daljit Singh (North), P R Vishwanathan (South), Tapash Chatterjee (Central) and Probir Mitra (East). Convener; Niranjan Shah.

Disciplinary: Sharad Pawar, Shashank Manohar and Chirayu Amin.

Cricket development: Kapil Dev (chairman), Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Dilip Vengsarkar, Hanumant Singh, Arun Lal and Ravi Shastri.