BCCI mandarins sharpen claws against Modi

Sources in the governing council, speaking to Deccan Herald here on Thursday on the condition of anonymity, said the BCCI bigwigs, most of whom are the members of the GC of IPL, will be at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh on Friday. They will meet informally on the sidelines of the inauguration of a new cricket stadium at the  holy city for Buddhists.
These sources said that the BCCI will hold its executive committee meeting on April 24 and the IPL GC may be held the next day.

The GC has on agenda the ongoing controversy over the Kochi IPL team. The sources said the members, who are ranged against Modi, will question him on several counts, including making public the details of the ownership structure of the Kochi team - which has led to opening of a can of worms – and other issues such as giving IPL internet contract by Modi allegedly to his relative. “There is no doubt that Modi was a wizard and brought to IPL to what it is today. However, his actions in the recent days has marred the fair name of cricket. He will come in for intense grilling”, they remarked.

Modi is the chairman of the governing council and he can count on the support of only former BCCI chief I S Bindra, the sources said adding that while two of the members – Sunil Gavaskar and Tiger Pataudi – may not be harsh on him, others may go the whole hog at him. They include: BJP leader and Delhi cricket chief Arun Jaitely, BCCI president Shashank Manohar, BCCI secretary N  Srinivasan, Gujarat’s Amin Chirayu, national selector Sanjay Jagdale, AICC’s Rajiv Shukla, Union Minister Farooq Abdulla, MP Pandov, Niranjan Shah besides former cricketer Ravi Shastri.

 The foundation for the attack on Modi has, in a sense, already been laid by the BCCI president himself as Manohar wrote a strongly-worded letter to Modi criticising his decision to make public the ownership details. Manohar chided Modi for revealing the stakes of Kochi’s owners saying the BCCI was a body that “functions in accordance with its constitution” and not through the media.

Manohar wrote: “The issue, if any, could have been discussed at the governing council meeting and that action on your part of raising it on Twitter is unbecoming of you as a chairman of the a sub-committee of the board. Your action is in serious breach of the confidentiality clause in the agreement.” “Till date, you have made public statements about a lot of issues which were not even discussed in the meetings of the governing council when it is the governing council which has the authority to take decisions with regard to each and every issue related to IPL.”

Modi, the centre of focus of the controversy along with Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, is also fully prepared to face his adversaries as he underlined that he has documentary proof for all that he has said.