Edulji disagrees with decision to allow Kapil and Co to select coach

CoA member Diana Edulji

The selection of the coach and support staff for the Indian men's team has run into trouble with a member of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) lodging dissent over the decision taken by the Supreme Court-appointed three-member committee not to refer the case of the ad hoc panel (formed to select the coach and support staff members) to the BCCI ethics officer Justice DK Jain.

Yesterday, during a meeting in New Delhi, CoA member Diana Edulji refused to be party to the decision taken by CoA chairman Vinod Rai and CoA member Ravi Thodge of going ahead with the ad hoc panel of Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy to select the coach and support staff members of Team India.

"The Supreme Court has appointed an ethics officer especially to deal with the conflict of interest issue. The CoA cannot decide on conflict issues. So, I have lodged my dissent," Edulji told mid-day yesterday.

"Since I had objected to the formation of an ad hoc panel in the selection of the women's team coach, I have similar concerns this time too," added the former India women's captain.

Rai was quoted in the media, saying he had received a green signal from the BCCI's legal team to let the ad hoc panel select the new coaches and support staff members. Ravi Shastri and his team of coaches and support staff have been given an extension till the West Indies tour.

Edulji also urged her CoA colleagues to at least take the opinion of the ethics officer regarding conflict issues, but Rai and Thodge didn't.
As per the new BCCI constitution, only the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which is formed by the general body, has the powers to select the Indian team coach and support staff members.

That's the reason the CoA has named Kapil Dev's three-member committee as ad hoc panel, which will be carrying out the functions of the CAC.

The CoA yesterday screened the declaration received from the ad hoc panel on the conflict of interest issue.

As reported first by mid-day in its July 25th edition, the three members of the ad hoc panel could be under the conflict of interest ambit. Kapil, apart from being a director in the Indian Cricketers' Association (ICA), also has a stake in a company that installs floodlights in cricket stadiums in India.

Gaekwad is a member of the BCCI affiliation committee and Rangaswamy is a ICA director. The conflict of interest issue was raised in yesterday's CoA meeting but it is learnt that Rai and Thodge felt the ad hoc panel members are not conflicted as the ICA functions are completely different from the role of panel. On Kapil's role with a floodlights company DevMusco, a source said: "Since he does not supply to the BCCI, it cannot be termed as conflict of interest."

Also read: Diana Edulji: Presenting trophies is not something I've aspired for

Kapil's company has supplied lighting equipment to the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, which is a unit of the BCCI, and Mumbai's Brabourne Stadium, owned by the Cricket Club of India, are founder members of the BCCI and enjoyed voting rights before the new constitution came into force.

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