Tamil Nadu strongman tightens grip on cricket board, allies get key positions
Brushing aside intense criticism and questions of probity, N Srinivasan was elected unopposed as BCCI President for a third year during the Board’s AGM here today even though he will not take charge till further orders from the Supreme Court.
Srinivasan was the lone Presidential candidate put forward by the South Zone, from where he got the proposer and the seconder.
The AGM asserted Srinivasan’s supremacy in India’s richest sporting body with not even a single voice of dissent being heard during the proceedings of the day. But he can resume his duties only after the Supreme Court gives its final verdict on the case filed against his candidature by the Cricket Association of Bihar secretary Aditya Verma.
The choice of the various sub-committees bore ample testimony to Srinivasan’s stranglehold on the organisation as all the executive functionaries as well as the heads of the important panels are perceived to be close to the Chennai strongman.
Srinivasan’s election was on expected lines despite the fact that he had his back against the wall on the issue of propriety after his son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings Team Principal Gurunath Meiyappan was charge-sheeted in the IPl betting and spot-fixing scandal. Srinivasan’s company India Cements owns CSK.
Biswal becomes IPl chairman
In another important decision, Ranjib Biswal, the Odisha Cricket Association chief, was named the IPl chairman, a post left vacant by Rajiv Shukla, who decided to resign at the end of his tenure this year. Biswal, a former India under-19 captain and first-class cricketer, was the manager of the Indian team during the 2011 World Cup triumph and was also a former chairman of the National Cricket Academy.
Among other important positions, Sneh Bansal (north), Ravi Savant (west) and Rajiv Shukla (central) have replaced Arun Jaitley, Niranjan Shah and Sudhir Dabir as vice-presidents.
Shivlal Yadav and Chitrak Mitra have retained their vice-presidency from south and east zone respectively.
While Jaitley has relinquished his post owing to political commitments in view of the upcoming general elections, Shah and Dabir have been dumped for their perceived closeness to Srinivasan’s adversaries Sharad Pawar and Shashank Manohar.
Sanjay Patel and Anirudh Chaudhry have been named the BCCI secretary and treasurer respectively. These positions were lying vacant since Sanjay Jagdale and Ajay Shirke resigned in the aftermath of the IPl betting scandal. Patel has been interim Secretary so far and his position was only made permanent on Sunday.
The maximum duration of time was spent on deciding upon the name of the IPl chairman, a lucrative but honorary position which requires a lot of travelling and liasioning with franchises and their owners. Not all the east zone units were in favour of Biswal but finally agreed on his name after the favoured choice Jagmohan Dalmiya was ruled out due to his age, which would have hampered his functioning in the demanding job.
However, Cricket Association of Bengal has been suitably rewarded for backing Srinivasan with their Joint Secretary Subir Ganguly finding a place in the IPl Governing Council. Apart from this, CAB Treasurer Biswarup Dey has been inducted into the powerful finance committee.
Former India stumper Chandrakant Pandit has been replaced by former Baroda opener Connor Williams as the chairman of the under-19 selection committee.
No talks on SA tour
India cricket team’s year-end tour of South Africa remained in limbo as BCCI members didn’t have any discussion on the series.
According to a BCCI official, who attended the meeting, the SA series was not even in the agenda and only after he SC allows Srinivasan to officially assume charge can the matter be sorted out. “There has been no discussion on the South Africa series. It was not in the agenda but obviously any discussion can take place with the permission from the floor of the house. But since our secretary (Patel) has informed CSA CEO Haroon lorgat that our president will take call, it all depends on whatever Mr Srinivasan decides,” a senior office-bearer said.