After about 23 months since being appointed by the Supreme Court to implement Lodha commission recommendations and run BCCI till the process is completed, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) is in a mess. Its head Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji—the only other serving member of the committee after Ramachandra Guha and Vikram Limaye quit—are at loggerheads over every possible matter.
Things have come to such a pass that Edulji has asked the BCCI staff to not follow Rai’s instructions without her approval. Formed to set a chaotic house in order, the CoA itself is a house divided, with no solution in sight until the court intervenes.
Appointment of coaches, handling of conflict of interest, sexual harassment charges and power to take decisions—there are many flashpoints that triggered an explosive e-mail from Edulji, where she accused Rai of ignoring her inputs. Rai has refrained from making public statements, but used the media tactfully to express his views.
This conflict has caused happiness in sections of the BCCI, where members in the past did their bit to make CoA’s life difficult. They are having a quiet chuckle, considering that each word in the Rai-Edulji crossfire is a blotch on their credibility. Guha’s resignation questioning the CoA’s manner of functioning caused a stir initially before dying down. The latest episode gives the BCCI officials fresh ammunition.
Although the court’s intervention looks inevitable at this stage, there is no clarity over when that would happen. It’s also not certain that normalcy would return to the CoA after one hearing. This leaves the Board in an unprecedented limbo. There have already been several complaints about the structuring and conduct of domestic matches. The weird timing of the IPL auctions has also raised eyebrows. Rai and Edulji could not have chosen a worse time to make their differences public.