CHENNAI: Barely a week after the BCCI approved its CEO Rahul Johri’s exit, another top executive handed in his resignation. Syed Saba Karim, who was appointed General Manager (cricket operations) in December 2017, resigned on Saturday. It is understood that the top brass asked the former international to resign or face termination.
Apart from handling the affairs of the national women’s team, Karim was also looking after domestic cricket. His resignation isn’t surprising because he’d been under pressure from the administrators — past and present — with regards to the format of Ranji Trophy. In the past month, several accusations were made against Karim by certain sections in the board and all seemed to be loaded with an agenda or two. Sources in the BCCI headquarters point out there was a lobby trying to pull him down.
This aside, much of the criticism the former stumper faced was regarding domestic cricket structure and scheduling of matches. Some of the state units were vocal also about the format and venues. However, it’s not easy to please all while managing a domestic calendar with 38 teams and over 2000 matches in men’s, women’s and junior sections. Things got complex after the introduction of nine new teams in 2018-19. Karim, who succeeded the late MV Sridhar, oversaw drastic changes in the Ranji Trophy format after the entry of the new teams following a Supreme Court order.
The redrawn format with four groups (Elite A, B, C and Plate) made the tournament more interesting in the Elite section, as five teams from Group A and B combined fought for knockouts berths. The move saw teams push for victory as against settling for first-innings lead. This format might have had drawbacks, it received praise from several quarters nonetheless.
Strange it may seem, Karim was also blamed for scheduling matches in regions where monsoon affected play. For instance, the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day competition had to be rescheduled last season after 17 of the 30 matches in four cities ended without a result because of rain. Bengaluru, Vadodara, Jaipur and Dehradun hosted the matches. Eventually, the tournament had to be extended by five days.
Interestingly, Karim’s resignation comes with the BCCI still to finalise the Ranji Trophy format. It is expected to begin in December instead of October because of the pandemic. Karim was supposed to make a presentation in the BCCI Apex Council meeting on July 17, but KVP Rao replaced him in the eleventh hour. With Karim now serving a notice period, the BCCI has to advertise for the post, a constitutional mandate. For the record, the BCCI is without a CEO and Chief Financial Officer. Board secretary Jay Shah’s tenure is over and president Sourav Ganguly’s term will end on July 26.