CHENNAI: Maintaining his earlier stance, acting BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary has refused to sign the appointment letter of General Manger (marketing), contrary to the decision taken by the Committee of Administrators (CoA). In an email to CoA, a copy of which is in possession of Express, Choudhary reiterated that this post was not recommended by the Justice Lodha commission, as claimed by BCCI CEO Rahul Johri in an earlier mail.
To drive home his point, Choudhary in his mail mentions that the Lodha panel recommendations states, “There would be a maximum of six mangers to assist the CEO who would have expertise primarily in the streams of Operations, Finance, Technical, Compliance (legal), Human Resources and Media.”
If Choudhary refuses to sign the contract, as mentioned last week, the CoA could ask Johri or General Manger (Cricket Operations) Saba Karim to do the formalities to recruit the candidate. Explaining his stance, Choudhary writes, “Clearly, the need for Marketing Manager in an institution like BCCI was not felt to be of primary concern even by the Hon’ble Justice Lodha Committee.
Besides, even the six positions enumerated above are of Manager and not General Manager level, as is the case in the instant matter. In my view, deviation from the recommendations cannot be justified merely because the decision was taken in a COA meeting, more particularly when the appointment is not being made on the post of Manager but a General Manager.”
Choudhary once again pointed out the procedures carried out by the CoA, where none of the BCCI office-bearers were kept in the loop. “It is now well accepted that one of the basic reasons for the constitution of the Hon’ble Justice Lodha Committee was to bring in greater transparency in the affairs of the BCCI. From your description of the process and observations made above it can hardly be said that the process followed was transparent inter alia because the elected representatives of the organisation, which is going to pay for the proposed executive, were unaware of what transpired in the preliminary or subsequent interviews for a post that is not a part of the Justice Lodha recommendation,” the mail reads.
Choudhary has also questioned the move to hire Korn Ferry, a head-hunting agency. Citing minutes of a meeting on June 12, 2017 in New Delhi, where he participated via Skype, Choudhary writes that the decision to engage Korn Ferry was kept away from him. “...for reasons unknown, the decision on this particular aspect awaited my exit from the meeting despite the fact that in the capacity of the Acting Honorary Secretary it would be the undersigned who would be required to sign the appointment letters, as is the case now.”
venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com