The International Cricket Council (ICC) has said that BCCI representatives nominated by Supreme Court of India for attending the ICC meetings starting on February 2 would be welcomed.
It also clarified the court action would not be construed as “governmental interference” as the ongoing court case is India’s internal matter.
“ICC has no objection to India’s Supreme Court-nominated BCCI representatives for the ICC meetings. It [the ongoing court case regarding the reforms in the BCCI] is a domestic issue of India. The ICC has nothing to do with it,” an ICC spokesperson told Outlook.
“People who attend the ICC Executive Board and ICC CEOs’ Committee are nominated by respective [national] Boards. Like other Boards, the BCCI will do the same, i.e. nominate the two representatives,” said the spokesperson.
Advertisement
The ICC spokesperson said the Supreme Court of a country cannot be equated with the government in power.
“Supreme Court nominating BCCI’s representatives will not fall under ‘government’s interference’ rule of the ICC. It is the Supreme Court; it is not the government of India. The government interference could be if, suppose, the sports minister or the foreign minister of a country takes over the national board of that country,” he explained.
“Those kinds of takeovers are different while the Supreme Court of any country is supreme; there’s no bigger court than that in a country. The Supreme Court’s agenda is not of taking over of a Board. They might step in to initiate things like reforms in a Board or whatever the issues might be,” he said.
Advertisement
A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Dipak Mishra, on Monday named three persons for the ICC meetings after confusion arose over who all in the BCCI were eligible after the court had ordered president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke to “forthwith cease and desist from” the BCCI affairs.
While appointing a four-member Committee of Administrators, headed by former Comptroller & Auditor General Vinod Rai, the bench nominated two outgoing BCCI office-bearers – treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and joint secretary Amitabh Choudhary – besides IDFC managing director-cum-CEO Vikram Limaye, a member of the COA, to attend the ICC meetings.
However, after the COA took over the charge on Tuesday, it barred Amitabh Choudhary from not just convening a meeting of the senior selection committee but also stopped him from going to Dubai for the ICC meetings.
The Vinod Rai-headed COA instead nominated BCCI CEO Rahul Johri for the ICC CEOs’ Committee meeting in a communication to the ICC, as per the rules. Limaye would attend the ICC Executive Board meeting while treasurer Anirudh would assist the two as he is familiar with the financial matters.
However, yet another twist happened on Wednesdaymorning as the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association moved the Supreme Court on behalf of Amitabh Choudhary, praying that he be allowed to attend the ICC meetings.
Advertisement
The matter was mentioned before Justice Dipak Mishra in the morning, and the judge heard it in the afternoon, in the presence of Choudhary. The judge ruled that that since the names had already been sent to the ICC, let the world cricket body consider as appropriate.
ICC meetings are to be held in February 2 to 5. The meetings start with a Chief Executives’ conclave and end with one of the ICC Executive Board, as it is the most powerful committee of the world body and all the decisions are taken at this level. In between the two conclaves, meetings of the finance and governance review committees will be held.
