CHENNAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India during its special general body meeting is understood to have passed a resolution wherein a separate counsel will appear for them when the Supreme Court’s next hearing begins on July 14. It is reliably learnt that they have also told the Committee of Administrators to hire their own counsel as to present their side of the case.
There is also a strong possibility that treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry will accompany joint-secretary Amitabh Choudhary and CEO Rahul Johri for the ICC meeting this month, despite the apex court clearly stating that Choudhary and Johri will represent BCCI.
During the meeting on Tuesday, which was convened to select BCCI’s representative for the ICC meeting, there seems to have been discussions on having their counsel during SC hearings as a majority of the members felt their case was not being presented. The matter seems to have already been discussed with the CoA panel as few members, during their meeting with Vinod Rai and Vikram Limaye during the IPL inauguration in Hyderabad, had talked about differences in opinion and areas where BCCI differed from the court-appointed committee.
During the last hearing, P Chidambaram, appearing on behalf of the CoA, argued why it was against the apex court order to send N Srinivasan as BCCI’s representative to ICC. “We want to have our own lawyer to put forth our views. There is a difference in opinion in the way we see things and how CoA goes about it and under those circumstances, their counsel is arguing for what they want and not for what BCCI members actually need,” a board official told Express on Wednesday.
But hiring a new counsel hasn’t happened without the consent of Rai. It is believed that Rai had told the members that if the interests of BCCI and CoA are different in any matter, then that view should be given in writing and the same would then be put before the Court along with the committee’s view.
Anirudh for ICC?
Though the SGM stated that Amitabh will be BCCI’s representative, there were also discussions of sending Anirudh to the meeting. The treasurer had been to the previous ICC meeting in February and along with Choudhary was tipped to be the second person to accompany for the ICC meet. The SC chose Choudhary and Johri instead but that hasn’t stopped the SGM to propose Chaudhry to attend the meet. It is learnt that the trio will meet CoA on Friday to discuss the way forward.
With the SGM also witnessing many BCCI members, who were termed ineligible by the Lodha Committee recommendations, in attendance, CoA is likely to file a status report before Supreme Court.