Sourav Ganguly in working group to help BCCI

As expected the working group will be chaired by IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla and will have BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur and treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary as the other members.

In a tight spot following the Supreme Court-appointed three-member Lodha committee’s verdict, Usha Nath Bannerjee, the board’s legal counsel will also assist the group.

The governing council that met in Mumbai on Sunday had authorized Shukla to constitute the working group, which will submit its recommendations in six weeks time.

It will then be discussed again in the governing council before being passed on the working committee of the board. Shukla said the working group would meet with various stakeholders like the sponsors, broadcasters, state associations, CAC members and legal experts to find solutions.

The key agenda of the group would be to ensure the players and the coaching staff from Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals does not suffer.

While suggestions from a member to terminate the two teams were not well received, the group will now deliberate on how to run the show. Many members had suggested floating tenders for the two teams and inviting new owners to take charge of the team as the punishments were for the team owners and not for the players.

Inviting tenders for new owners will also mean the IPL sticks to its eight-team format and is not reduced to six. However, with new owners joining the bandwagon, the league will be forced to have 10 teams when the two-year suspension period ends. The other option that was discussed during Sunday’s nearly hour-long meeting was to explore possibilities of the two teams being run by the board itself.

A prominent member on the panel had suggested that the likes of Rahul Dravid and M.S. Dhoni were capable of managing the team on their own.