Done with the Annual General Meeting, it's time for the BCCI to get cracking on various fronts
Largely, there were two takeaways that emerged from the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s Annual General Meeting in Chennai yesterday. First, there’s absolutely no room for dissent, as Niranjan Shah and Sudhir Dabir found out. Second, those who are willing to side with the boss, through thick and thin, will be rewarded handsomely just like Ranjib Biswal and Anirudh Chaudhary.
It’s incumbent upon the BCCI to take a call on the South Africa tour as soon as possible
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The proceedings that unfolded in Board president N Srinivasan’s backyard could not have been scripted better by someone in great turmoil, both on the personal and professional front. After all, not many people can completely disown the deeds of their son-in-law after putting him in a position of considerable authority, as well as hunt down rivals who are sniffing around for chinks in the armour.
The Board may have found its office-bearers for the coming year — no matter how dubious the methods — but as any cricketer would say: it’s easier breaking into the team than staying there.u00a0MiD DAY lists a few issues that the BCCI will have to address in the coming months. The sooner they do it, the better for cricket and its biggest stake-holders: The fans.
Srinivasan’s legitimacy
N Srinivasan’s legitimacy at the helm of affairs will continue to remain under scrutiny till the time the Supreme Court adjudicates on the Special Leave Petition filed by Cricket Association of Bihar’s secretary Aditya Verma in the matter relating to the conflict of interest and the manner in which the two-member probe panel was formed to look into the spot fixing scandal that rocked IPL VI earlier this year.
BCCI’s stand on FTP
In total disregard to the ICC’s Future Tours Programme, India have refused to a full tour of South Africa later this year. If one were to go by what Cricket South Africa had planned, India would have played three Tests, seven ODIs and two T20s in the marquee series.u00a0But in an effort to hit CSA where it hurts for not toeing the BCCI’s line in the Haroon Lorgat affair, the Board has still not announced how many matches India will play in a vastly curtailed
calendar. And sadly for fans of both countries, if things are not sorted in the coming few days, the tour may be scrapped
altogether.
What happens to IPL VII?
The seventh edition of BCCI’s money-minting machine, the Indian Premier League will in all likelihood clash with the general elections, and it remains to be seen what the Board plans in this regard. The last time such a scenario occurred in 2009, the then chief of IPL Lalit Modi in all his brashness moved the tournament to South Africa, and is still paying the price for taking on the Indian establishment.
Seniors conundrum
The 2015 World Cup is a little more than a year away. Therefore, fans will be keenly observing Sandeep Patil & Co’s every little move. The selectors have some serious decisions to make and it will be interesting to know the stand they take on the likes of Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh over the course of the tournaments that India are scheduled to feature in.
The NCA question
Kerala’s TC Mathew takes over from Ranjib Biswal as the National Cricket Academy’s chairman. But there’s still no clarity on the role that the Bangalore-based academy will play over the coming months, given the numerous changes the Board has initiated in the elite institution. By the way, the BCCI is yet to announce a Director for NCA.u00a0
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