Reports | BCCI Ombudsman to call in CoA for questioning after VVS Laxman’s letter
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The BCCI Ombudsman may ask the Committee of Administrators to appear in front of him, after VVS Laxman’s letter in which he had stated that the CoA had failed to reply him. The controversial appointment of the coach of women’s cricket team is another matter that has been taken up.
VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar are the mentors of Indian Premier League franchises Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians respectively. The duo, apart from Sourav Ganguly, is also a part of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) and the BCCI Ombudsman Justice (Retd) DK Jain had asked them to reply on the conflict of interest allegations due to their dual role. Tendulkar had stated that he does not receive any financial compensation for his role, whereas VVS Laxman had blasted the Committee of Administrators (CoA) for failing to reply his letter seeking his role in the CAC. The 44-year-old also went on to say that the committee was promised a wider scope but their task was just limited to the selection of coaches for the national team.
As a result, Jain will now have to get in the details of the CAC’s role in order to understand their side. He may ask the CoA members Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji to appear for a hearing in this matter. Rai had earlier said that the BCCI will not have a representation in the conflict of interest case against Tendulkar and Laxman. The Ombudsman may not agree to this and this may lead to an ugly spar between the two.
"Now, the question is will Rai agree to this hearing? Of course, Edulji will agree. Because right from the start she has been saying that the correct procedures were not followed while appointing the women's coach," said a source privy to the developments, reported TOI.
Apart from this issue, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the appointment of WV Raman as the head coach of the national women’s team in late 2018. Laxman had also stated that CoA gave the CAC members merely 24 hours to decide on the women's coach. Eventually, Rai had appointed an ad-hoc committee comprising former India captain and coach Kapil Dev, former India opener and coach Anshuman Gaekwad, and former India women’s team captain Shantha Rangaswamy in order to select the coach.
Both Rai and Edulji had publicly spat over the appointment process. The latter, through e-mails, had stated that the CoA’s decision was unconstitutional and the mandated process was not followed.
"This is not just about the CAC members. There's more to it. A lot of ugliness has surrounded the manner in which the process of the appointment of the women's national coach was handled," stated the sources.
There is uncertainty also surrounding the decision to stop Raman’s salary after one month, only to restore it after two more months.Â
As per reports, the newest member of the CoA, Lt Gen Ravindra Thodge had asked Raman’s salary to be restored on the basis of ethical grounds. The sources felt that the ombudsman will get into nitty gritty into the entire controversy.
"You can't stop salaries like that. The ombudsman will have to dig deeper. Rai, Edulji, the CEO, CFO — they all will probably be making their way to the ombudsman's office.
"Now, the ombudsman will have to look into everything. What was the hurry to appoint the new committee when there was a CAC in place? Did the COA explain to CAC what their role was? Why did the CoA not reply to the CAC's letter dated December 7, 2018? Why was Raman's salary stopped? There's more. All of this will have to be answered," added the sources.
