MEN'S UNIFORMS WERE BEING CUT UP AND RESTITCHED FOR THE WOMEN

INTERVIEW Vinod Rai former chairman, Committee of Administrators, BCCI

- NEERU BHATIA

VINOD RAI’S time as head of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators can best be described as a hectic car ride on a road full of potholes. It lasted far longer than he had imagined—33 months.

In Not just a Nightwatchman, Rai writes about how the CoA innings went. The formation of the CoA was not good news for cricket officials and it was not surprising for Rai and his team to encounter barricades propped up by “detractors” along the way.

The BCCI, led by president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah, are allegedly cherry-picking from the new constitution and continue to hold sway because of the Supreme Court’s delay in deciding on the validity of their posts.

In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, Rai talks about his tenure and answers all questions with a straight bat. However, he refrains from commenting on the current situation in the BCCI. Excerpts:

Q/ In hindsight, could you have done certain things differently?

A/ I do not think so. I have mentioned [in the book] that if we had known [about it] earlier, the Anil Kumble issue could have been handled differently.... (Kumble decided to step down as head coach of team India in 2017, following alleged differences with captain Virat Kohli). I did not have the foggiest idea that Kumble’s tenure was coming to an end and that he had only a one-year tenure. His contract did not have an extension clause. Every time I would talk to him, I could see the pain in his eyes and I would say to him, “Yes Anil, we could have handled it differently, but you tell me how— what could have been the option?”