Square Leg Umpire's Sixer

After clipping wings of BCCI supremos, an irate Vinod Rai threatens to hold elections without recalcitrant affiliates

- Qaiser Mohammad Ali

For months now, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Adm­inistrators (CoA) has made several attempts to straighten up the working of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and rein in its top bosses. But as the Board shows no sign of implementing any of the court-mandated reforms, the CoA is now going for the jugular. As the first step, it has clipped the powers of the BCCI office-bearers, and is all set to take more hard-hitting decisions.

Though the SC has still not given clear orders for holding BCCI elections—as the new BCCI constitution hasn’t been approved—CoA chairman Vinod Rai is going to act tough. In 2016, the court had approved over 95 percent of the draft constitution submitted by the Lodha Committee to the previous bench headed by CJI Tirath Singh Thakur. The new bench agreed to hear the objections of those who were unhappy with the proposed changes.

The CoA has been frustrated at the ‘parallel adm­inistration’ that was running within the BCCI, a point it mentioned in its sixth status report. The clash of personalities rea­ched a new flashpoint when treasurer Anirudh Chau­dhry and acting secretary Amitabh Chou­dh­ary declined to sign important papers as desired by the CoA. In its seventh status report, the two-member CoA has emp­hasised the urgent need to hold elections to the BCCI, as the three-year tenures of the office-bearers and the vice-presidents have ‘expired’.

Now, after failing to build consensus among the BCCI and its state units on adopting the new constitution, holding polls and adopting refo­rms, the CoA, which was tasked by the court to imp­lement reforms over 14 months ago, has dec­ided to act. To begin with, Vinod Rai has issued 12 hard-hitting directions to all in the BCCI, including the three office-bearers, whose powers he has clipped.