Potential bidders were approached to back out from IPL reveals Vikram Limaye

07/16/2017

Vikram Limaye revealed that there were forces that tried to stall the Indian Premier League this year, approaching potential bidders to back out from the bidding process. Limaye also suggested that the head coach Ravi Shastri was within his rights to demand support staff of his choice.

Vikram Limaye recently stepped down from the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators to take up his new role as the National Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer(CEO) this week and made a revelation with regards to the hindrance encountered in conducting the Indian Premier League this year.

The 50-year old revealed that there had been attempts to undermine the organisation of the T20 league after the CoA had taken over the administration of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

"There were various forces at work trying to derail the IPL. That is factually correct. I have heard it from potential bidders too who were approached and asked not to bid. It was important to make sure a property like IPL doesn't suffer, all credit to those who are in charge of the league who made it happen," Limaye told TOI.

The Cricket Advisory Committee(CAC) comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman named Ravi Shastri as the new head coach for the Indian team on July 11th along with Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid as the batting consultant and bowling coach originally. However, it was reported that Shastri was not happy with Zaheer Khan being named the bowling coach and wanted his choice Bharat Arun to take over the role. Since then, there has been a debate regarding the CAC's role in choosing the additional appointees and whether Shastri has the right to choose the support staff or not.

Limaye clarified that it was well within Shastri's rights to demand support staff according to his choice while the CAC were only briefed to pick the head coach.

"Advisory committee's main task was to pick the head coach. The brief given to them was not to pick the support staff. The rest was their recommendation. Ultimately, it is the head coach who should have a say in who his support staff should be. Whether he needs permanent coaches or additional consultants for specific tours or conditions, the head coach can recommend. The head coach is well within his rights on these matters. You cannot decide arbitrarily who the head coach's team should be without the head coach's involvement in that decision," the 50-year old said.

However, Limaye backed CAC's call of informing Indian skipper Virat Kohli before announcing the coach's name.

"I actually feel that it(CAC's decision) has been sensationalised beyond reason because we had put a process in place which was very clearly laid out. There was a credible committee in place that was tasked with the responsibility and the outcome should be respected instead of being sensationalised. The committee said they wanted to talk to Virat and there was nothing wrong with that either. There is no reason why captain should find out who the coach is through press. There were various channels and people saying this is a farce and Virat was making the decision, which is not correct.."

The CoA changed the tenure of contracts for the national coaches of the Indian national teams from 10 months to 2 years following the allegations of conflict of interest by former member Ramchandra Guha, and Rahul Dravid was the first one to accept the contract as the coach of India A and U-19 teams. Limaye explained the whole concept and the reasons they had to be implemented.

"In the old framework, Dravid had a 10-month contract and the remaining two months, he could work with the IPL. The new conflict policy does not permit national duty and IPL duty to co-exist. Therefore when Dravid's contract came up for renewal, we said we will only renew it in a manner that it is compliant with the policy. We cannot be seen approving contracts that are in violation of what the SC has asked us to implement. Therefore we clearly told Rahul that the contract will be renewed provided you are willing to do 12 months of national duty and there's no IPL conflict."

Limaye also affirmed that the CoA has agreed upon the appointment of full-time director at the NCA and the advertisments for the same will be released soon.

Potential bidders were approached to back out from IPL reveals Vikram Limaye

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