All is not well in the BCCI alleges CEO Rahul Johri

All may be well for Indian cricket on the field and on the stage, but behind the scenes, there is something brewing deep inside the Board of Control for Cricket in India that is threatening the survival of two of its senior-most paid officials. In what can be seen as dramatic, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India have filed affidavits in the Supreme Court against the BCCI treasurer’s behaviour, contending that it is affecting work in the cricket’s headquarters in Mumbai.

CEO Rahul Johri and CFO Santosh Rangnekar filed separate affidavits in the Supreme Court earlier this week. Both alleged that treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry’s intimidating behaviour in January and October last year had left them scarred. Their grievances hint that political clout and muscle power are at work and that a faction in the BCCI still exists. Moreover, it is  problematic because implementing Lodha Recommendations are becoming a problem because of one individual.

The matter is coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday. Meanwhile, Chaudhry, in his defence said the charges against him are “false”. “The matter is now in court and if I am asked to, we will file a reply,” he said.

Johri and Rangnekar have pointed out that Chaudhry has been a major hurdle in the implementation of the reforms proposed by the RM Lodha panel. In July 18, 2016, the Supreme Court had made the reforms binding on the BCCI and constituted a Committee of Administrators in January 2017 to execute them. As reported by HT, among several things related to operating the BCCI’s bank account, Johri’s affidavit points at the growing animosity between the CFO and the treasurer. The latter had lost the authority to be a signatory on the directive of the Supreme Court-appointed RM Lodha committee.

Johri narrates how Chaudhry had told Rangnekar that “he was planning to file an FIR against the CFO and CEO for misappropriating BCCI’s funds by making payments to vendors from the imprest account maintained by BCCI with Union Bank, Nariman Point branch.” The affidavit adds that “the treasurer had told the CFO that even if the FIR ultimately turned out to be false or was rejected by the court, the CFO’s life for the next two years would be totally finished by that time.” Chaudhry clarified that he had never filed such an FIR.

Life threats?

It alleges Chaudhry had threatened the CFO saying “if he had been in Haryana, the CFO would have evaporated by now and no one would have ever known of his existence.” Chaudhry, the son of former BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra, had denied the allegations in court. Johri has also accused Chaudhry of going to the extent of telling the CFO to “have potassium cyanide” and “finish him” if Rangnekar made even one mistake. The CEO and CFO have appealed to the Supreme Court that the delay in implementation of the Lodha reforms has allowed officials like Chaudhry thrive in India’s cricket administration. Worried about their lives and the professional management of BCCI, Johri and Rangnekar have appealed to the Supreme Court to make certain BCCI officials fall in line.