New Boss asks, so do all: Where has the Board gone?

‘‘There was just no one from the Board,’’ Madugalle told The Indian Express, adding that his decision would be made public only tomorrow.

So where was the Board? A day after the Madras High Court restrained its newly-elected office-bearers from functioning and appointed former Supreme Court Judge S Mohan as ‘‘interim administrator,’’ it seems India’s top cricket officials have simply disappeared.

Take the case of Sunil Gavaskar, the team’s batting consultant who left for Mumbai today to attend to some ‘‘personal work.’’ Why did he do that on a day when the team needed him the most? No one knows. Rather, there’s nobody to answer.

The BCCI office in Mumbai is locked too, as Mohan found out this morning when he flew from Chennai to Mumbai to take charge.

The 75-year-old is now planning to submit a report on Monday to the Madras HC, pointing out that he was not allowed to take charge despite its order.

Late this evening, Nair denied the allegation. ‘‘We were not informed whether he had accorded his consent to such appointment,’’ he said in a press release. The office was closed as the staff were given compensatory leave for working on September 27, a government holiday, he said.

By then, the BCCI’s newly-elected office-bearers had moved SC against the HC order. This prompted Mohan to fax a letter from Mumbai to BCCI’s counsel in New Delhi, Radha Rangaswamy, saying she would hereafter have to take instructions from him and ‘‘not any of the office-bearers who have been injuncted from functioning.’’

If Justice Mohan has his way, Rangaswamy will have to withdraw BCCI’s SLP when it comes up for hearing on Monday.

Asked if he wanted her to withdraw the SLP filed today, Mohan said: ‘‘Once I have been appointed the interim administrator, I alone can represent BCCI till further orders from the court.’’

What is the justification for office-bearers acting on BCCI’s behalf after the HC order? BCCI’s honorary secretary S.K. Nair said the HC order was ‘‘subject to acceptance of the named administrator.’’ Nair said at the time of filing the petition he had ‘‘not yet been informed with (sic) any communication of…acceptance by the appointed administrator.’’