CHENNAI: Days after Committee of Administrators chief Vinod Rai questioned Amitabh Choudhary’s proposal to host day/night Test matches without consulting the Supreme Court-appointed panel and various stakeholders, the acting secretary has rebuked those charges in a reply sent on Tuesday.
Choudhary has told Rai that the proposal to host the day/night Test was only a follow-up to a policy decision taken by the working committee of the BCCI in 2016.
The former Jharkhand State Cricket Association president has also questioned CoA’s move to appoint new General Manager (marketing) and has even refused to sign the appointment order of Priya Gupta, who was handpicked by Rai and Diana Edulji and was asked to take a position before April 7.
Explaining why he chose not sign the appointment order, Choudary in his mail to Rai — also accessed by Express — writes, “I have once again not been any part of the decision making process on the appointment and the same having been done without even the concurrence of the office bearers if not the General Body surprises me, more so when the said appointment is proposed on a post which was not only hitherto nonexistent but is also not one of the positions recommended by the Justice Lodha Committee.
“Like all appointments, this too places a financial liability on the BCCI. Moreover, the person who has been selected by only two people, neither of whom represents the thirty-seven member units of the BCCI, did not even figure in the initial list of candidates…. the only proper way forward on the issue of appointment of GM, Marketing would be to allow the General Body to consider it before the final decision taken by you is implemented.”
With regards to hosting day/night Tests against West Indies in October/November, Rai had asked Choudhary not to rush on the decision and take the views of the team.
And Choudhary in his mail has told Rai that his comments contradicts the facts.
“...your major contention that the undersigned was taking ‘policy decisions’ without taking all stakeholders in the loop is clearly not supported by facts and perhaps you were not made aware of relevant records. I would like to inform you that if anything the undersigned was only trying to take a step forward in executing a policy decision which had been unanimously taken at the BCCI Working Committee meeting on 24th June 2016 where day-night matches were introduced for the first time in Duleep Trophy with the stated purpose of using said experience to have one of the home tests in 2016-17 season converted to a day-night test match.”
Choudhary has also brushed aside Rai’s theory that players body will take a lot of time to get used to the new body clock if they are to feature in day/night Tests.
“With the cumulative ODI/T20I/IPL figures of only five top players such as MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuveneshwar Kumar mounting to 1855 matches, an overwhelming majority of which were night matches, the issue of body clocks is adequately addressed.”
venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com