Pushed into a tight corner by the recommended sweeping reforms to its structure by the Supreme Court-appointed Justice lodha Committee, BCCI's members would meet here today at a Special General Meeting to discuss the report's implementation.
The SGM of the Cricket Board has been convened to figure out a way forward after the BCCI was told to "fall in line" with the lodha panel recommendations by the apex court that has given the Board time till March 3 to respond.
The SGM is to be preceded by the Working Committee meeting of the BCCI for ratifying the decisions by its sub-committees taken after its previous sitting.
The far-reaching effect on the implementation of the lodha Committee's recommendations and the subsequent scathing observation on the matter by the Supreme Court has left the Board members thoroughly shaken.
Among the recommendations are limitation of tenure for the Board's office-bearers, prescription to limit their age to 70 years, one state-one vote (set to directly affect the associations within the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat) and barring of ministers and government officials from becoming office-bearers.
After the meeting of its legal Committee here earlier this month, with BCCI president Shashank Manohar attending it, it was decided to convene the SGM to get the views of the various affiliates before it responds to the Supreme Court on the issue.
The Board had earlier advised its affiliates to convene their own managing committee meeting of SGM to take stock of the situation and discuss the implications of the recommendations made by the Justice lodha Committee.
"As some of the recommendations have far reaching consequences, it may be advisable to seek an expert opinion as to how the same would affect your association," BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur had written in his communication to the BCCI's affiliates.
Two other items on the special agenda of the SGM are "discussion on financial structure of the Member Boards of ICC (International Cricket Council) and the report of the Affiliation Committee of its visit to Chhattisgarh".
The ICC had recently decided to scrap the controversial constitutional amendments, which gave executive clout and financial power to India, Australia and England.
In its first meeting of 2016 after Manohar took over as ICC Chairman, the world body's Board agreed that the current system, put in place by former head N Srinivasan, needed to be done away with.
The Manohar-led ICC has suggested a complete review of the constitutional changes made in 2014 by Srinivasan which gave enormous powers to the 'Big Three' with the bulk of the share of the ICC's revenue going the troica's way.
Harbhajan seeks legal opinion
Senior India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh today said he is seeking legal advise on the way ahead after BCCI Ombudsman Justice (Retd) AP Shah observed that the bowler should dissociate himself from sports apparel company 'Bhajji Sports', which supplies kits to domestic teams.
Shah had investigated the 'Conflict of Interest' issues raised by activist Neeraj Gundey, who had filed a number of such complaints with the 'Office of Ombudsman'.
"I have received an e-mail communication from the Board. All I can say at this moment is that I am discussing the issue with my legal advisor. I will act according to his advice," Harbhajan said.
The company 'Bhajji Sports' is owned by Mrs Avtar Kaur, who is the cricketer's mother.
When a senior BCCI official was asked, he said that if Harbhajan is not the owner, anyone else can run the company, he said: "As long as Harbhajan's name does not feature among the owners of the company in any of the deeds, he will not be under the Conflict of Interest purview."
According to Justice (Retd) Shah's observation: "The Ombudsman recommends that all concerned individuals (cricketers, selectors, coaches, and administrators) should be required to make standard disclosures about their affiliations in the context of the conflict of interest rules (which may pertain, for example, to cricket coaching/training academies, sports management companies, sports apparel manufacturers, etc).
"If the disclosures reveal that an individual does have such an association, they may be asked to either terminate their association with such companies/academies, or asked to resign from their position as cricketer/selector/coach/administrator, as covered by the conflict of interest rules."
However, there was a big sigh of relief for former India captain Sourav Ganguly after Shah declared that the former batsman's association as part-owner of Atletico de Kolkata doesn't fall into Conflict of interest purview after the owners bought the Pune IPl team.
"The Ombudsman is of the view that no case of conflict of interest has been established or made out against Mr Ganguly, and therefore, the matter is accordingly disposed of," Justice Shah says in his order yesterday.
Ganguly, in his reply, had made it clear that he had no commercial links with the new IPl franchise Rising Pune Supergiants even though he had a negligible share in Atletico de Kolkata.