File photo: Writer-historian Ramachandra Guha
New Delhi: Historian Ramachandra Guha might have cited personal reasons for quitting from his position in the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators of the BCCI, but in a strongly worded letter to chairman Vinod Rai, he has spared none.
Here are the key points of his explosive letter:
Conflict of Interest: The BCCI has given preferential treatment to national coaches, especially legacy players, by giving them contracts that help them work as IPL coaches/mentors.
BCCI Commentators as Player Agents: People like Sunil Gavaskar are heading companies which are representing Indian cricketers while commenting on those same players as part of the TV commentary panel.
Superstar Culture: The popularity of a player (former or present) allows them the leeway to flout norms and procedures. MS Dhoni was the captain of the Indian team while holding a stake in a firm that represented some current India players.
Dhoni’s Test Contract: MS Dhoni had a Grade-A contract when he had explicitly ruled himself out from all Test matches.
Kumble’s Issue: Even though the players garner the bulk of the credit. Coaches such as Anil Kumble are left in the lurch and hung out to dry. Why was the captain-coach issue not handled earlier?
Ranji Contracts: Despite immense revenues, players in Ranji and Mushtaq Ali Trophy are under paid and have no annual contracts.
Committee of Administrators: The COA has stayed silent and inactive when the Supreme Court judgment was being so flagrantly violated by people clearly disqualified to serve as office bearers of state and even BCCI run cricket bodies
Javagal Srinath: Absence of a respected make cricketer in the COA has attracted a great deal of criticism. Javagal Srinath is of the right age and experience to fit the bill of COA member.
First Published: June 2, 2017, 1:03 PM IST