IPL, PepsiCo, Cuttack on agenda as BCCI Working Committee meeting to reconvene on 18 October

Mumbai: The previously adjourned meeting of the BCCI’s all-powerful working committee has been reconvened on 18 October in Mumbai and is set to be a crucial one with many issues confronting the board.

The earlier Working Committee meeting of 28 August was adjourned sine die after deciding to seek the opinion of the Supreme Court on whether N Srinivasan could attend the meetings of the BCCI as the authorised representative of Tamil Nadu Cricket Association in view of the conflict of interest issue.

Shashank Manohar, who was elected last Sunday unanimously as the new president at the Board SGM after the sudden demise of incumbent Jagmohan Dalmiya on 20 September, is expected to tell the members in detail about the slew of reforms he had announced at the media conference soon after being anointed as the new chief.

Manohar had announced setting up of an Ombudsman or Ethics Officer, among many other things, with a view to clean up the Board and make its working transparent in public domain.

Another major topic of discussion would be the roadmap for the conduct of the next edition of IPL after two teams, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, were suspended for two years by the Supreme Court on the Justice Lodha Committee’s recommendations in the wake of the 2013 spot-fixing and betting scandal.

The meeting would also fix the date of its AGM, which could not be convened before September end as per its own Memorandum of Rules and Regulations, after the annual reports of its secretary Anurag Thakur, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary and all its sub-committees are tabled and passed by the all-powerful group.

The incident of bottle throwing by a section of the irate crowd at Cuttack during the second India-South Africa T20 International is also expected to come up for discussion. Manohar has already asked for a full report of the incident from the Odisha Cricket Association.

Also on the agenda would be finding a new sponsor for the IPL after PepsiCo expressed its desire to end the association.

PTI