President N Srinivasan on Thursday declared that he will contest for the top post in the upcoming Board elections in Chennai on September 29.
“I am going to stand (for re-election as president). You are press, all of you are giving the numbers (in support and against me),” said Srinivasan after attending BCCI’s marketing committee meeting here.
Srinivasan is bidding to get re-elected as the president of the BCCI for the third year running under the Board’s two plus one year tenure rule after having completed two years at the helm.
After stepping aside, due to the spot-fising scandal in April 2013, Srinivasan chaired the meeting of the disciplinary committee held in Delhi earlier this month that imposed life bans on cricketers S Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan following a probe by BCCI’s Anti-Corruption and Sceurity Unit chief Ravi Sawani for indulging in spot-fixing in IPl6.
Srinivasan also said the report of south units holding a meeting in Chennai recently was not correct as the media got the venue wrong.Two units of south zone, Goa and Andhra CA, did not attend the meeting, according to the reports. “First of all the information is wrong. The meeting did not take place (at the venue) where media is saying,” said the BCCI chief.
“I don’t know what bearing it has (on the upcoming elections),” he added.
As per the Board’s regulations, it’s the turn of south zone to propose and second the name of the president for the third year but the candidate they support can be from outside that zone. There are talks that Srinivasan’s predecessor Shashank Manohar is interested in staging a comeback. But an important Board functionary rejected the chance of the Nagpur-based Manohar to return to the helm.
“Shashank Manohar has said he’s interested, but he is getting support only from one unit of south. What can he doIJ” the official asked.
Another key functionary said Srinivasan’s backers are confident that he would get elected for another year as he has got the requisite support. “The president is going to stand (for getting re-elected). He has got good numbers. We are confident and not worried. We are calling it as an election and it will be for one year,” he said.
Rs 2 cr per match
The BCCI marketing committee meeting, has decided to set the base price of buying rights for India’s home fixtures at Rs 2 crore per match (Tests/ODIs/Twenty20 Internationals) for a period of six months.
Dr Farooq Abdullah, who is the head of the marketing committee, could not attend the meeting due to political commitments and president-in-exile N Srinivasan chaired the meeting as this was not a “day to day affair”.
“Mr Srinivasan chaired the marketing committee meeting where we decided that the base price for buying the rights of India’s international matches at home will be Rs 2 crore per match,” a member of the marketing committee said over phone from Mumbai.
“last time, Airtel won the rights paying Rs 3.33 crore per international match across three formats. This time it will be different. For example, if company A bids Rs 4 crore for a Test and company B bids for 5 crore for a T20, they would be separately given the rights of Tests and T20’s respectively,” the official added.
The BCCI members also took the current economic slowdown in the country into account while discussing the span of contract period.
“We had to take into account the recession factor also. The members were in full agreement with the president (Srinivasan) that the span of the buying title rights for home series be kept to six months. We are expecting that markets will see an upswing once the general elections are over,” the official added.