Amitabh Chaudhary, the joint secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, on Tuesday was barred from convening the selection committee meeting in New Delhi for India’s upcoming one-off Test against Bangladesh as per the instructions of the newly-appointed chief of administrators, Vinod Rai. In his stead, CEO Rahul Johri convened the meeting from Mumbai via video conferencing, reported PTI.
BCCI joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary barred from convening selection committee meeting for Bangaldesh Test. #BCCI.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 31, 2017
This is the first step taken by any member of the newly formed four-member panel entrusted with the task of running the cricket board till a new body is elected. The confusion meant that the meeting, which was scheduled to begin at noon was delayed by four hours, despite Chaudhary being present at the venue of the meeting.
“Amitabh Chaudhary had called a senior selection committee meeting in Delhi today to select the squad against Bangladesh,” a BCCI official told PTI. “Vinod Rai and Co have immediately swung in and barred him from doing anything. The CEO is directly convening the meeting via video conference from Mumbai.”
A selection meeting scheduled to pick players ahead of England’s arrival in India was similarly delayed after Chaudhary objected to Johri chairing it days after the Supreme Court had removed Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke as president and secretary respectively.