The Board of Control for Cricket in India's selection committee meeting for the one off Test against Bangladesh on Tuesday was delayed by nearly six hours after joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary was found ineligible to convene the meeting.
The meeting was supposed to be held at 12 noon in New Delhi but started only after 6pm as Chaudhary, who was present at the five star facility, was not allowed to conduct the selection meeting as per the instructions of Vinod Rai, chief of the Committee of Administrators appointed by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court order clearly states that Committee of Administrators (COA) will be running the BCCI with CEO Rahul Johri reporting to them in all matters related to the Board.
It certainly makes Chaudhary persona non-grata as far as decision-making of the internal matters of the BCCI are concerned.
It was around 12 noon Chaudhary was told that he has to wait as he is not eligible to attend the meeting. It was CEO Johri, who convened the meeting by video conferencing with skipper Virat Kohli joining from Bengaluru via Skype.
"Amitabh Chaudhary had called a senior selection committee meeting in Delhi today to select the squad against Bangladesh. Vinod Rai and Co immediately swung in and barred him from doing anything. The CEO is directly convening the meeting via video conference from Mumbai," a BCCI source said in New Delhi, on Tuesday.
The incident also proves that Chaudhary probably is not authorised to function as the joint secretary and will only function as the BCCI representative at the International Cricket Council's meetings as he has a thorough background knowledge that investment banker Vikram Limaye will need for future meetings.
Image: BCCI Joint Secretary Amitabh Choudhary
Photograph courtesy: Amitabh Choudhary/Facebook
