CHENNAI:THE country’s cricket establishment is looking forward with bated breath to the Supreme Court order on adopting the BCCI constitution put together by the committee of administrators (CoA). It has been a long wait, considering that the CoA was formed on January 30, 2017.
However, if BCCI sources are to be believed, it seems that the CoA members are still to be paid for their services. A four-member panel to start with, it came down to three after Ramachandra Guha quit last July. Vikram Limaye’s resignation a month later left Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji as the two surviving members on the committee. Other than travel and lodging, none of them have got anything so far.
“Till date, there has been no remittance from the BCCI’s account as fee paid for services rendered by the CoA,” sources told Express on condition of anonymity. “We don’t know how much they are supposed to be paid either. As far as our knowledge goes, the amount is to be decided by the court. But there hasn’t been any communication in this regard.”
Efforts to reach Rai or Edulji over phone to verify this proved futile. Neither answered calls or replied to messages. The BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, too, was not available for comment on this.The CoA is not the first body appointed by the court to look after BCCI matters. The Lodha Commission was in place before that and each of the three members of this panel got paid `1 lakh per day on working days. Sourav Ganguly, too, received this amount for the days when the panel required his services.
“At that time, the court had specified the amount of a lakh per working day, excluding allied expenses like travel etc. The lawyer assisting them was getting a lesser amount. All of them were paid from the BCCI’s account. But when it comes to the CoA, we don’t know what’s happening,” said the source.
The CoA members have till now enjoyed the facilities reserved for BCCI office-bearers. According to sources, they get business class travel and accommodation in suites in star hotels that the board has deals with. BCCI officials obviously don’t receive fees since these are honorary posts. “As far as we know, the court has asked the CoA members about it and they have submitted their reply in an envelope. But there has been no instruction to the BCCI yet, on how to go about their payments.”The court was expected deliver a verdict in the BCCI case on Friday. Till Thursday evening, there was no confirmation of this.
atreyo@newindianexpress.com