"Every thing is secure. We are here to set things right," was how Committee of Administrators (COA) comforted the Indian cricket board employees during their first meeting at their headquarters on Saturday.
This was necessitated after the board employees felt uncomfortable after being served "disclosure form" two days back to whether "they have any direct conflict of interest or court cases pending against them".
The day started with COA, led by Vinod Rai, spent some time with the BCCI staff to hear about their views on ongoing cricketing affairs currently being faced in the wake of Supreme Court orders.
"It was a comforting interaction for all of us after witnessing some hiccups during last few weeks post January 2 — when SC sacked Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke — developments. We are being told to carry on with our job and not to think about rumours that has been spread by old guard," a senior BCCI employee told DNA after the meeting.
However, there could well be some bad news in store for a few as 'disclosure forms' were collected during the meeting. As DNA reported few days back that general manager (cricket) Dr MV Sridhar has been made co-accused Hyderabad Cricket Association's Rs 4 crore scam, this would make his further stay in the BCCI hard as COA is likely to implement all the Justice Lodha reforms in coming days.
"We'll go through all the disclosure made by employees before taking any call," was how a source close to COA said when asked about Sridhar.
It must be mentioned here that the Telangana unit of ACB has charged former HCA president and former India off-spinner Arshad Ayub, G Vinod and seven others of misusing public money and suggested the officials be tried under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act and under other provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
Meanwhile, COA has also further sought a compliance report on implementation of SC orders in all the state associations by March 1. This was carried out by sending a mail to all the state-member associations of the BCCI asking them to strictly implement the Apex court orders with regard to the disqualification of office-bearers etc.
It has been leant that COA is planning to pin point on the erring state officials who have till now refused to bow down to SC reforms. This also include those who are also employed as government servants in various states.
"As per SC orders, no govt employee can continue to be part of BCCI or state association. However, it has been brought to our notice that there are so many officials who are still flouting Apex court orders are those who are also employed in various govt services. We've now decided to make a list of all those in defiance and then brought it to the notice of related governments, states of centre," informed the source.
Courtesy: Daily News and Analysis (DNA)