BCCI Shakes Up Its House; End of the Road for Lalit Modi; Gavaskar Goes Out

By Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

        In an interesting but not unexpected turn of events, the BCCI Annual General Meeting saw a troubled actor booted out and some others welcomed back as the BCCI puts up a new front.

       The BCCI AGM saw the board decide to do away with Lalit Modi’s status as suspended IPL Chairman and Commissioner to add a new prefix “former”. The man with a huge number of controversies attached to him with regard to the IPL has been sidelined to such an extent that those that even empathized with his situation were not given sympathy. In a significant move, Jagmohan Dalmiya was given a reprieve from the BCCI which squashed the case against him and welcomed him back into the fold in a clear intention of changing equations.

        The ICC President, Sharad Pawar, will not find too many friends in the BCCI either considering the names that have changed positions and hands. BCCI Vice Presidents misses one name – Lalit Modi but includes others such as Niranjan Shah (West Zone), Rajiv Shukla (Central Zone in place of Lalit Modi), Arindam Ganguly (East Zone), Arun Jaitley (North Zone) and Shivlal Yadav (South Zone).

         But the biggest shake up was not even N. Srinivasan nominated as BCCI President-Elect to follow after Shashank Manohar as the BCCI president in a year to come but the IPL governing council that will see some new faces and some mystery over certain others.

         One of the most significant exits was that of Sunil Gavaskar who was dropped from the IPL Governing Council even though two former Indian cricketers, Ravi Shastri and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, were retained, with Manohar suggesting that pay was an issue in a scenario where the position would be honourary.

        The reconstituted IPL governing council has some new faces and new roles for old faces: IPL Governing Council looks like this: Chirayu Amin ( IPL Chairman), Ravi Shastri, MAK Pataudi, Anurag Thakur, Rajiv Shukla, Arun Jaitley, Ranjib Biswal.

         There has been a well thought out, well planned unit on the board that suggests that there is no room for ambiguity from board quarters to the public with an image that has taken a beating with Lalit Modi’s flamboyant talk and lifestyle being dissected by several financial irregularities and deals that have gone under once the BCCI took charge at damage control. 

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