Pouring cold water over several members’ proposals regarding India’s participation in the upcoming Champions Trophy, Vinod Rai, the Supreme Court-appointed interim president of the BCCI, has issued a rebuttal and has warned the members of the board against taking any decision without the mandated approval of the Committee of Administrators (COA).
“Yes, we have issued an instruction that any decision regarding the ICC Revenue Model should only be taken at the Special General Meeting (SGM). But the BCCI units have been told that they cannot issue any legal notice to the ICC with regards to Champions Trophy pull-out without our prior approval,” Rai told PTI on Tuesday (May 2).
Rai’s comments come in the wake of reports of several BCCI members being unhappy with the financial arrangement being brokered by ICC chairman, Shashank Manohar, and proposing that India boycott the eight-team tournament as a symbol of protest.
During the recently concluded ICC meet, India’s influence in world cricket received a massive setback as the majority voted for a change in the ICC’s Governance and Revenue structures. As the head of cricket’s decision taking body, Manohar had clamped down on the ‘Big Three’ arrangement and had also reduced India’s share in the revenue model that’s distributed to its member nations by the ICC. Eventually, BCCI’s stand was shot down by a 1-13 vote during the recently concluded meeting of cricket’s governing body in Dubai.
A section of the BCCI is said to be upset with the recommendations made by Shashank Maohar and are said to be in favour of taking legal action against the erstwhile BCCI chief.
Rai, who was asked by the SC to take over as the interim chief of the BCCI in January, was forced to clarify after some reports suggested that a former BCCI president had initiated a teleconference with a few selected board members to discuss and terminate the ICC Member Participation Agreement (MPA) on Tuesday. This teleconference, the reports said, was done as they feared that they didn’t have the numbers to garner enough support for a resolution during the Special General Meeting (SGM), due to be held on Sunday (May 7).
“It was brought to our knowledge that some of the officials were engaged in a teleconference and wanted to take a decision on the said matter. One needs to understand that this kind of a decision cannot be taken in haste. A Champions Trophy pullout will lead to India not playing in ICC tournaments for the next eight years. It cannot be decided by a few members,” Rai said.
The interim president also added that the decision to pull-out from the Champions Trophy should be unanimous and it should be backed by all the 30 voter members during the SGM on May 7. “There can’t be a fractured mandate where some are in favour of a pull-out and quite a few against the motion. If you ask me, the extreme step should only be taken if all the 30 members decide unanimously that a pull-out is necessary,” Rai said.
The COA is expected to seek a directive from the highest court – if the 30-member SGM decide unanimously on a pull-out. Having won the tournament in 2013, India are the defending champions and are the only team to have not yet announced their 15-man squad.
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