The draft constitution of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) submitted by the Committee of Administrators (CoA) to the Supreme Court has stripped the secretary and treasurer of key powers and recommended these be vested in the CEO. While delineating the powers of office bearers and paid professionals, the CoA has taken away key powers of the secretary and treasurer, including signing contracts on behalf of the board and the treasurer being the sole signing authority on behalf of the cricket board.
Instead, the CoA has vested all executive powers in the CEO. He will be given the responsibility to sign and enter into any contracts on behalf of the BCCI as per the draft constitution submitted to the apex court. All correspondence in the name of the BCCI will be done by the CEO.
The Supreme Court is set to hear the matter today on Thursday and has ordered all the three current office bearers of the board to be present in person. The SC order follows the hard-hitting and damaging fifth status report submitted by Vinod Rai-led CoA in the Supreme Court. The CoA had expressed frustration over non-implementation of the SC order related to Lodha reforms in the report.
The report had also stated that all three office bearers, despite filing personal affidavits in the apex court, had failed to ensure that the BCCI adopts the new constitution with as many “practicable recommendations” as directed by the court.
Meanwhile, the BCCI, during its Special General Body meeting on July 26, had asked for clarity on roles of elected office bearers and professional management team.
As per the new draft constitution, a copy of which is available with THE WEEK, the secretary “cannot sign all contracts on behalf of BCCI or carry out correspondence on its behalf.” However, he will be “one of the three persons to be designated as authorised signatory and will sign all audit reports and accounts of the board.”
There is also no provision that he will be convenor of the selection committee as has been the norm till now. All work related to the AGM/SGMs or apex council meetings such as maintaining minutes and records should be done by the secretary, the draft constitution recommends.
The treasurer will no longer make payments or incur expenditure on behalf of the BCCI but be “one of the three persons who sign the audited annual accounts and other financial statements of the BCCI”.
While taking away the powers to control the 'coffers of the cricket board', the new constitution adds more responsibility to the treasurer's profile. “He will prepare statement of accounts, place annual balance sheet before apex council and annual budget,” the draft constitution states. Taking out the finance committee totally from the BCCI structure, the new constitution outlines that the treasurer and CEO will obtain “insight into usage of funds by full members and associate members.”
The day-to-day management of the board in both cricketing as well as non cricketing matters, including operations, technical, human resources , finance and media, “shall be conducted by the CEO under the supervision of the apex council”.
The apex council, consisting of seven members as per theh Lodha Committee originally, will “clarify respective roles of CEO, managers, cricket committees, etc”. The constitution says “apex council will distribute balance of authority so that no single person has unfettered powers”.
The IPL General Council (GC) will report directly to BCCI General Body and not apex council. Earlier, it was given the status of a sub-committee reporting to the working committee of the BCCI.
The CEO gets the powers to appoint team officials for Indian team like coach, manager and support staff. The IPL GC also has to maintain a separate bank account to be operated by two authorised signatories .
The constitution also detailed conflict of interest rules and made it clear that selectors of Indian teams could not be coaches of IPL franchisees nor could coaches of teams coach IPL franchisees. The constitution also bars BCCI commentators holding a role in any sports management agency.
The issues related to one state one vote, age and tenure norms and cooling-off periods are pending before the Supreme Court. Till the court gives an order on the same, the CoA has retained the clauses as prescribed by the Justice Lodha Committee.
