COA changes policy for themselves; allows members to watch World Cup in England at BCCI expenses

There was a clear ban on the BCCI officials making foreign trips to watch the team play, and when Amitabh Choudhary had planned his trip to Sri Lanka to watch Nidahas Trophy in March 2018, CoA cancelled the plan. Choudhary wished to watch the two T20Is between India and Ireland and the first two games against England after the ICC meeting in Dublin last June. However, the CoA had cancelled the trip by asking him to do so at his own expense.

However, with the World Cup approaching, CoA has changed their own policy and decided to allow their own members to make a trip to England for the World Cup.

“If any CoA member wants to travel to watch ICC World Cup, they can go. The BCCI will bear all their expenses,like they do for all office-bearers. Earlier, BCCI office-bearers used to go on foreign trips, it’s just that the CoA members are going as well,” sources said.

This all seems very surprising as the CoA had earlier issued a show-cause notice to Choudhary last June for his trip to Bhutan and asked him to explain his visit when the acting secretary had gone “essentially to survey the availability of cricketing equipment, cricket grounds, suitability of soil/clay available for preparation of pitches, etc.”