BCCI officials question validity after Rahul Johri asks for a salary raise
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Rahul Johri has requested the CoA to look into his increment process and Vinod Rai has given the go-ahead to his request. However, a few officials raised a complaint saying, increments were to be in the form of variables linked with increase in revenue of BCCI out of the efforts of the executive.
Johri is paid an annual gross salary of Rs 5,76,36,000 other than the allowances and other benefits, and in that regard, after his third year of service, which is 2019, the case should be revised to check if he needs any further raise. When Johri asked for the same, CoA chief Vinod Rai has given the go-ahead for immediate attention. Now the topic will be discussed when the three committee members -- Rai, Diana Edulji and Ravi Thodge meet on Tuesday in New Delhi.
However, Johri’s request hasn’t gone down well with a few BCCI officials as they raised the issue that as per the contract of the CEO, the performance of the executive was to be evaluated annually and increments were to be in the form of variables linked with increase in revenue of BCCI out of the efforts of the executive.
"This is a travesty. The Lodha Committee recommendations and the orders of the Supreme Court gave the authority to sign contracts for an on behalf of the BCCI to the secretary of the board. In terms of all legal matters as well, the board is to sue and be sued in the name of the secretary. Presently, the CoA got a constitution registered that is not in accordance with the orders of the Supreme Court and that coupled with the directions issued by the CoA mean that the contracts are executed by the CEO on behalf of the BCCI and it is the CEO that is looking after all legal matters with the might of a big law firm firmly behind him,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by India Today.
"So if the CoA decides that the agreement with the CEO should be modified, will we see a scenario where Rahul Johri will sign both on behalf of the BCCI and on his own behalf? Also, if there is a dispute between the BCCI and Rahul Johri over this, will Johri give instructions to the BCCI lawyers on this matter and in case he does not officially give any instructions, what prevents the BCCI law firm from supporting his case? Where are we going with this? This anomaly of legal representation had been pointed out to the CoA earlier as well but they had refused to accept that this anomaly existed."
To go with that, another senior BCCI official, who was part of the General Body and the Working Committee when the CEO had been appointed, put forward a couple of questions asking if the clauses had indeed been fulfilled by the CEO to be eligible for an increment.
"It was clear that his increments would be on the basis of increase in revenue only because of the CEO's efforts. The BCCI already had a series of existing revenue streams that were giving the BCCI substantial income, the idea was that if we have a professional CEO, he was supposed to add new revenue streams as the old streams really took care of themselves on their own. While there has been an increase in revenue generation from media rights and sponsorship deals, that is basically on account of appreciation in the value of those rights which is a universal phenomenon.
"The rights value grow at a particular percentage and that is how the value is arrived at even by the companies that bid for the rights. The appreciation doesn't have anything to do with him putting any effort, unless of course the CEO is willing to admit that he has rigged the bids in anyways since all those rights are given by way of a tender process.
"Even the work that has been carried out has actually been a team effort and I am unable to understand by what logic are they trying to attribute any increase in revenue to his efforts. On the one hand you can't be saying that the money comes in because of the players if on the other hand you are trying to say that the revenue has come in because of the efforts of the CEO by applying some crazy logic."
