ICA have been shoved down the BCCI's throat, asserts Ashok Malhotra
Ashok Malhotra has stated that the BCCI has not been really supportive of the Indian Cricketers Association and expressed his disappointment with Anshuman Gaekwad and Shanta Rangaswamy. He has also added that the BCCI needs to raise the game and discuss the issues raised by them.
The Indian Cricketers Association has been demanding pension for former players who have played less than 25 first-class games along with a solution to demands like pension for widows of former cricketers, increase in medical insurance from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and release of the money from the benevolent fund to Manoj Prabhakar, whose ban for match-fixing ended in 2005. However, none has been discussed in the Apex Council meeting yet, something that irked the president of the association.
"We are answerable to our stakeholders in the ICA, and the Apex Council members are answerable to the ICA. Three Apex Council meetings have been conducted, and these issues are not even in the minutes of those meetings. You talk about IPL, you talk about (administration of the) Bihar Cricket Association, domestic calendar, the FTP… I have nothing to do with it; it's for the BCCI to do something,” Malhotra told ESPNcricinfo.
"I have been told by my Apex Council colleagues that they did speak to the BCCI president, but outside the meeting, not in the meeting. Outside the meeting counts for nothing. Because it's not in the agenda. It's almost ten months, and nothing has been done so far."
"Lots of cricketers are 70, 80, they are on the last leg (of their lives), how long can they wait? Anyway, the pension that is given to cricketers amounts to .54% of the overall BCCI expenditure for a year. Even if you double it, it's 1.08%. We are not asking for much. Of the five [ICA members - Hitesh Majmudar, V Krishnaswamy, Yajurvindra Singh and Rajesh Nayyar are the others] at least listen to one, for god's sake," he added.
Before the interview, Malhotra had released a video on his Facebook page, where he spoke about the challenges caused by the BCCI, making the ICA too dependent on them. However, the public taking of the board members has not gone down well with the other members of the board who have been asking for issues to be dealt with internally. Malhotra revealed that he received messages from his four colleagues since then who have also sent him an email asking him to "follow the process".
"After the video, all hell broke loose. Four directors started writing… one of them wrote to me saying we can't fight a big organisation like the BCCI, look at what happened to Lalit Modi. I said where is the question of fighting? Where is the comparison between us and Lalit Modi. Then the four of them got together and fired an email to me. On top of that, one of the directors, I don't know who released the email to the press. I was being outvoted on everything, but I was keeping quiet. But now they are saying don't go public, but they are leaking emails to the media."
"Then they sent an apology to the BCCI without consulting me. For that video. I just wanted to know if you have sent an apology why didn't you inform me? Am I not a board member? I am the president. If the four of you discuss and decide, it's not done, it's taking things too far. So I have now gone public too. It's a democratic set-up, we are answerable to our stakeholders. What is the role of the president? Am I the president or the chapraasi (servant)?"