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Didn’t see any reason to oblige competitors of our partners: Khanna
Wednesday 25 October 2017

Didn’t see any reason to oblige competitors of our partners: Khanna
BCCI acting President’s logic was that he couldn’t allot passes to a company that is a direct rival of the commercial partners
Acting BCCI president CK Khanna has said he was well within his rights to refuse passes from his quota for an Apple senior executive and his team for the India versus Australia T20 International in Hyderabad on October 13.
As reported by The Indian Express, a senior executive of Apple, the multinational techno giants, visited India from the US and 20 passes had been requested for his entourage so that they could watch the game (it was eventually washed out). BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary requested Khanna to allot 10 passes from the president’s quota, while he allotted another 10 from the secretary’s quota. After Khanna refused, Choudhary allotted all 20 passes from his quota.
Khanna’s logic was that he couldn’t allot passes to a company that is a direct rival of the BCCI’s commercial partners, Oppo and Vivo.
“I am glad that you brought the topic of the passes in relation to Apple. You will be mindful of the fact that though you are looking at a potential future partnership with Apple, we currently have a partnership with Oppo and with Vivo! I personally do not see any reason for us to oblige the competitors of our partners. I value partnerships be it on behalf of an organization or on my personal behalf,” the BCCI president wrote in a reply to Choudhary’s letter, citing a mail from the cricket board CEO Rahul Johri, which said: “I thought Apple, from a Compliance Standpoint, cannot take out anything for free.”
Choudhary, in his email, mentioned that the BCCI officials shouldn’t use their quota of passes as “personal favours to friends, relatives and most voters, but whatever would serve the Board’s interests best”.
Khanna responded with: “About passes, Amitabh it is not the case that I am the only person who speaks about passes. There have been occasions that have necessitated my communication about the same.”
The cricket board president also said that the proposal for purchase of IPL tickets had the backing of the IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla and Choudhary, along with the BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary, didn’t “object to the same”.
About the secretary’s allegation of Khanna being silent on implementing the Lodha Committee recommendations as per the Supreme Court orders, the latter described it as “ludicrous”. “I must point out that, while you attempted to falsely portray that you were the only one for reforms while the others were against it. We attempted to get a consensus of the members for carrying out honorable Justice Lodha Reforms and in compliance with the orders passed by the hon’ble Supreme Court,” he wrote.
Khanna made a counter allegation that Choudhary instead kept him in the dark about the ICC events. “You have chosen to exclude me even from official communications and you have not even updated office bearers on events at the ICC despite repeated emails to the effect,” the BCCI president mentioned in his letter, adding: “Additionally, if you feel that appointment of physios/trainers, observers and other support staff etc. are not important in the scheme of things, you should not have had any difficulty in following my instructions, being the Acting President, BCCI.”
According to Khanna, Choudhary even “acted beyond views expressed by the General Body” and “contradicted” his own statement. The war of words between the two top BCCI office-bearers points to a spilt in the cricket board hierarchy.
Acting BCCI president CK Khanna has said he was well within his rights to refuse passes from his quota for an Apple senior executive and his team for the India versus Australia T20 International in Hyderabad on October 13.

As reported by The Indian Express, a senior executive of Apple, the multinational techno giants, visited India from the US and 20 passes had been requested for his entourage so that they could watch the game (it was eventually washed out). BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary requested Khanna to allot 10 passes from the president’s quota, while he allotted another 10 from the secretary’s quota. After Khanna refused, Choudhary allotted all 20 passes from his quota.

Khanna’s logic was that he couldn’t allot passes to a company that is a direct rival of the BCCI’s commercial partners, Oppo and Vivo.

“I am glad that you brought the topic of the passes in relation to Apple. You will be mindful of the fact that though you are looking at a potential future partnership with Apple, we currently have a partnership with Oppo and with Vivo! I personally do not see any reason for us to oblige the competitors of our partners. I value partnerships be it on behalf of an organization or on my personal behalf,” the BCCI president wrote in a reply to Choudhary’s letter, citing a mail from the cricket board CEO Rahul Johri, which said: “I thought Apple, from a Compliance Standpoint, cannot take out anything for free.”

Choudhary, in his email, mentioned that the BCCI officials shouldn’t use their quota of passes as “personal favours to friends, relatives and most voters, but whatever would serve the Board’s interests best”.

Khanna responded with: “About passes, Amitabh it is not the case that I am the only person who speaks about passes. There have been occasions that have necessitated my communication about the same.”

The cricket board president also said that the proposal for purchase of IPL tickets had the backing of the IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla and Choudhary, along with the BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary, didn’t “object to the same”.

About the secretary’s allegation of Khanna being silent on implementing the Lodha Committee recommendations as per the Supreme Court orders, the latter described it as “ludicrous”. “I must point out that, while you attempted to falsely portray that you were the only one for reforms while the others were against it. We attempted to get a consensus of the members for carrying out honorable Justice Lodha Reforms and in compliance with the orders passed by the hon’ble Supreme Court,” he wrote.

Khanna made a counter allegation that Choudhary instead kept him in the dark about the ICC events. “You have chosen to exclude me even from official communications and you have not even updated office bearers on events at the ICC despite repeated emails to the effect,” the BCCI president mentioned in his letter, adding: “Additionally, if you feel that appointment of physios/trainers, observers and other support staff etc. are not important in the scheme of things, you should not have had any difficulty in following my instructions, being the Acting President, BCCI.”

According to Khanna, Choudhary even “acted beyond views expressed by the General Body” and “contradicted” his own statement. The war of words between the two top BCCI office-bearers points to a spilt in the cricket board hierarchy.

(Courtesy: The Indian Express)

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