CoA gives FTP nod even as BCCI fails to call SGM

Even as the BCCI office bearers dither over announcing the date for a special general body meeting (SGM) to discuss the new Future Tours Programme, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) has given its nod to the broad plans devised by board chief executive officer Rahul Johri.

The ICC has scheduled a workshop on December 7 and 8 in Singapore to discuss the minutiae of the new cricket schedule agreed in-principle by the Full Member nations at an ICC Board meeting in Auckland in October.

At the workshop, the countries would chalk out a week-by-week plan for the FTP that will span the period between the 2019 and 2013 World Cups. Apart from the global events, the calendar would comprise the Test and ODI Leagues which start in two years' time.

The CoA, having received a request from the acting board secretary Amitabh Choudhary, had asked the BCCI to call for an emergency meeting to discuss the FTP along with the settlement of a dispute concerning Kochi Tuskers, the former IPL franchise, and revoking the suspension of the Rajasthan Cricket Association.

In its e-mail sent to BCCI acting president CK Khanna on November 15, the CoA told him to finalise a date for the SGM and send a notice to all board members (state associations) within two days. However, an alert is yet to go out. Khanna told ESPNcricinfo a final decision would be taken in a meeting between the CoA and office bearers on Tuesday. He also said that he had tried to call an SGM on December 1, but Choudhary was unavailable on that day.

On Tuesday, the COA chairman Vinod Rai recommended that the BCCI office bearers comprising Khanna, Choudhary and Anirudh Chaudhry (BCCI treasurer) fix the SGM before the ICC workshop. "I told them there is the ICC meeting in Singapore to finalise the FTP, so please convene your SGM before that. Till today they have not sent the notice."

It is understood that the three office bearers sat with Johri and set December 9 as the date for the SGM - the day after the ICC workshop - but the state associations have received no notice.

This current episode of infighting is part of the prevailing power struggle between the COA and the office bearers, the latter a group that is deeply divided.

After the COA asked Khanna to call the SGM last week, PTI reported a strongly-worded e-mail sent by Chaudhry to Khanna and Choudhary in which he wondered how the state associations could be expected to take a call when proceedings were being "hustled through".

"It is absolutely shocking that a decision of this magnitude may be hustled through when all the members ought to have been given proper notice and time along with all relevant documents to study and deliberate on the item," Chaudhry was quoted as saying in the letter.

On Tuesday, though, Rai pointed out to the office bearers that Khanna was supposed to call the SGM on November 15, three weeks before the ICC workshop. Under the BCCI rules only the president can call an SGM with 10 days' notice, and at the SGM, Johri was meant to talk about the FTP and explain to members the BCCI's plans.

A BCCI member claimed the infighting between the office bearers has been creating unnecessary hurdles. "Where is the question of hassling," they said. "If BCCI cannot hold the SGM, you can't hold the world to ransom."