Focus on possible Team India's participation in Olympics in COA-BCCI meet
New Delhi: The BCCI’s stand on India’s Olympic participation in case of cricket’s inclusion and revision of pay structure in the domestic circuit will top the agenda when the Committee of Administrators (COA) meets the Board’s top office-bearers, here on Wednesday.
Also on the agenda will be audit firm Deloitte’s presentation on financial irregularities in state associations. Amid speculation that the 2024 Paris edition might just have cricket as one of the disciplines, the BCCI will have to take a call in this regard even as it has not been very keen on becoming a part of the quadrennial extravaganza.
India have not been sending a team to multi-discipline events such as the Asian Games, where cricket is part of the roster.
India had, however, sent a side to the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia.
Besides this, there are at least nine issues that the COA will discuss with the BCCI and the most anticipated among them is the proposal of a pay hike for domestic cricketers across all age-groups along with match officials and support staffs.
The domestic pay structure has not undergone any revision since 2007. The players get Rs 10,000 per day for a first- class match apart from a lump sum that they get from broadcast rights at the end of the season.
The COA will also take note of the Deloitte presentation related to the audit report that it has prepared. The ‘conflict of interest’ issue will also be discussed. It must be mentioned in this regard that BCCI has kept ‘conflict of interest’ in its list of difficulties pertaining to the implementation of the Lodha Panel reforms.
Another aspect will be the list of commentators that will be approved by the BCCI for the upcoming home season. It will be interesting to note if Harsha Bhogle makes a comeback in the list after he was dumped by the BCCI following an allegedly critical on-air comment about the performance of some star India players.
Former COA member Ramachandra Guha, in his scathing resignation, had raised the issue asking whether players will decide commentators from now on.
The issues pertaining to the next edition of the Indian Premier League will also come up for discussion.
It is yet to be known whether the Kerala HC lifting the BCCI’s life- ban on Sreesanth will come up for discussion or not.
