Amitabh Chaudhary questions BCCI acting president's 'complete silence' on Lodha reforms

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary has questioned acting president CK Khanna's "complete silence" over the issue of implementation of the Justice (Retd.) R.M Lodha-led committee recommendations.

In a scathing letter to Khanna, Chaudhary said that the acting president neither have a view, nor have interest in taking the reforms forward and is instead "unhesitatingly and enthusiastically" discharging his authority as president over trivial matters.

"On the other hand, with the profusion of your emails, what intrigues me is the complete silence on your part that one observes when it comes to the subject of the Hon'ble Supreme Court mandated reforms. It is manifest that you neither have a view on this nor have interest in taking the reforms forward, which ought to be the primary concern, instead of unhesitatingly and enthusiastically, but selectively, discharging your authority as president over trivial matters. It would be worthwhile to remind you that, like the undersigned, you too have undertaken before the highest court of the land about nine months ago to implement the reforms," Chaudhary said.

Chaudhary further accused Khanna of neglecting important board issues because his "favourite subject has consistently been passes for international matches and even IPL games".

Soon after tech giant Apple requested the BCCI for 20 hospitality passes to attend a T20I match between India and Australia earlier this month, clouds of conflict had appeared between Chaudhary and Khanna.

Chaudhary's letter came in the wake of Khanna's refusal to sanction some of these passes from the president's quota for the match in Hyderabad on October 13.

"I congratulate you for these elegantly written and well-worded emails and the author's command over the language that it demonstrates. However, one could not help recognizing that most of these related to the subjects of complimentary passes, appointments of support staff such as managers/physios of teams, appointments of observers and the like. Never once have I received any communication from you dealing with issues of substantive interest to the BCCI such as the manner to deal with various national tournaments, currently underway, in the face of unseasonal but persistent rains in the various parts of the country, issues relating to numerous tax litigations, negotiations with Kochi Tuskers, issues that Pakistan has tried to raise and so on." Chaudhary said.

The letter further said, "Recently, the undersigned and you received an email from a BCCI official for allotting 20 hospitality passes for the Hyderabad India-Australia T20 game (eventually washed out) for Apple. Considering the brand profile of the company and potential future partnership with BCCI I immediately suggested 10 from Hon Secy's quota and another 10 from President's quota could be allotted. You declined it and so I allotted all 20 from Hon Secy's quota. Thereafter, you chose to write a mail educating us on the significance of quotas and their allocations. I had chosen not to respond to that but I need to tell you as well as others concerned that the paramount consideration for any quotas for office bearers and its allocations is not personal favors to friends, relatives and most voters, but whatever would serve the Board's interests best. In my humble consideration I had thought that it was worthwhile from the BCCI's point of view to send passes to Apple on their request." 

-ANI