Vinod Rai blasts BCCI for not following protocol regarding planning of Day/Night Test
COA head Vinod Rai has slammed BCCI for not following the protocol regarding the planning of the Day/Night Test match against Windies. Amitabh Chaudhary consulted Ravi Shastri, Rahul Johri, CK Khanna, Anirudh Chaudhary, Saba Karim, and Gaurav Saxena, but kept the COA out of the mail chain.
The Windies are set to tour India from
In a stinging e-mail to the acting secretary on Wednesday, the COA chief began by saying, “I’m a bit amazed at the way we seem to be taking policy decisions. Please confirm firstly, that day/night Tests have never been played before. Secondly, you seem to have discussed with all the stakeholders, who in your scheme of things constitute four persons sitting in the (BCCI) cricket centre - A very misplaced viewpoint,” before rebuking the acting secretary for not consulting his committee on the issue, which he has asked to be put on hold for now.
“Thirdly, even if it be cricket of which all of you certainly have greater knowledge than me, (I’m excluding Diana (Edulji, former India women’s team skipper), who has greater knowledge than all of you! I represent the viewing population. They are your greatest stakeholders. Don’t you think you need to factor them in? This issue is placed on hold. It does not go out of cricket
The above emails have been a reply to the emails in possession of TOI which reveal a lot of things happening between the BCCI board members and the Indian cricket team head coach.
Chaudhary had asked Ravi Shastri for his opinion regarding scheduling this match around 12:30 pm as India has always seen a poor attendance during the Test matches played in India. Shastri, in his reply, had agreed for the match “to be tried out as an experiment with a game starting at 12.” However, Shastri has concluded his response by saying that “to get in the crowds, it doesn’t matter if it's a day game or day/night game. What’s important is (the match is scheduled in) a ‘tier 2’ city.”
Subsequently, in a mail addressed to BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, acting president CK Khanna and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary, ex-India wicketkeeper Saba Karim and operations manager Gaurav Saxena, Choudhary says, “Below is the exchange-of-emails with Shastri. This had followed a day after my telephonic conversation with him. Yesterday, I had occasion to discuss the same in detail with the national selectors, CEO and GM, Cricket Operations and all seem to be in sync provided the advice of only the last session being played under lights is ensured.”
He then concludes by saying, “Under the circumstances, we will go ahead with the proposal choosing one of the two Windies Tests for the first ever day-night game on Indian soil requesting the Tour, Program, Fixtures Committee for the needful.”
Rai then put down some ground rules in his email and asked Amitabh Chaudhary to follow it.
He wrote, “1) We work out a whole process with venue thrown in - exact timings, including security arrangements over five days in the same venue and the cost of the same to BCCI and the state association. 2. We then consult the guest team. We need to factor in their viewpoints. 3. Ravi may have been consulted but I would like to consult the players whose body clock over five consecutive days will have to get accustomed to a new timing. 4. Also, factor in the administrative set up who will be doing the regimen for five days - late nights and all.”