Sept. 29: Regardless of the observation that the Supreme Court may have made when hearing the case filed by A.C. Muthiah, former BCCI President, against N. Srinivasan, now President-elect for a year, on the count of ‘conflict of interest,’ the BCCI’s powerful administrator and secretary will be the sole signing authority for IPL contracts.
The Board could take such a route since there has been no order from the SC and only an observation among many about Srinivasan’s dual role as BCCI secretary and chief honcho of India Cements that owns Chennai Super Kings, IPL and CLT20 champion. The BCCI prepared for the post-Lalit Modi era, bringing several key changes in the composition of the IPL Governing Council. At its Annual General Meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday, the BCCI decided to ratify the functioning of the GC, slashed its members’ term as well.
Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar was dropped from the GC while interim IPL chairman Chirayu Amin was handed the full-time job. “The IPL governing council constitution was changed on Wednesday at the AGM. The period of the GC, which is a sub-committee, of the Board has been reduced to one year from five years,” BCCI president Shashank Manohar said.
Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi was the third cricketer in the dissolved panel and Manohar said efforts were on to contact him about taking up the job in an honourary capacity. Apart from Amin, the IPL council will include Arun Jaitley, Ranjib Biswal, Anurag Thakur, Ajay Shirke and Rajiv Shukla.
The board also appointed committee heads: Jyotiraditya Scindia (finance), Farooq Abdullah (marketing) and Ajay Shirke (NCA construction and infrastructure committee). It was also decided that the Grounds and Pitches committee will be reconstituted again to be headed by former chairman Venkat Sundaram.
Meanwhile, Anil Kumble will take over the National Cricket Academy top-job, while Dilip Vengsarkar will chair the Cricket Development Committee.