IPL 2019: Diana Edulji wished to hand over the winner’s trophy against the convention

The Mumbai Indians (MI) beat the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by one run in the Final of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019. It was MI’s fourth IPL title after the ones in 2013, 2015 and 2017 respectively. The award ceremony after the end of the final is a massive occasion and this time as well there was a host of big names and BCCI officials present there. It almost plunged into a controversy as Diana Edulji, a member of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) expressed her desire to hand over the winner’s trophy.

It was Edulji, who handed the trophy in the Women’s T20 Challenge won by the Supernovas in Jaipur earlier this week. According to the norms, CK Khanna, the acting president, handed over the trophy to Rohit Sharma, the MI captain. From the CoA, only two members Diana and Lt Gen (retd) Ravi Thodge were present in Hyderabad. CoA chief Vinod Rai didn’t attend the IPL final.

“Edulji gave away the winners’ trophy at the Women’s T20 Challenge in Jaipur and she wanted to give away the trophy here also. However, it was learnt that Khanna showed an e-mail from acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhry to IPL COO Hemang Amin, stating that convention of the president giving away the trophy should be followed,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying in News 18.

Vinod Rai speaks on the matter

Rai was also asked for his views on the matter. In reply, he asked whether there was any need to change the convention. “It was Lt Gen Thodge, who categorically told the former India women’s team captain that acting president Khanna should be allowed to hand over the trophy and the matter should be put to an end. She was certainly not happy but had to go with the majority view in this case,” the reported source added.

Edulji and Rai have had their fair share of differences over several issues, but after the appointment of Lt Gen Thodge, the CoA has been able to take a number of concrete decisions.

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