VVS Laxman's Reply To Cricket Board Ombudsman Reflects Poor Treatment Of Legends, Says BCCI Official

VVS Laxman's response to the "conflict of interest" notice issued to him by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Ombudsman shows that the cricket board has treated the legends of the game poorly, said a senior BCCI official. The official was reacting to Laxman's response sent to BCCI Ombudsman DK Jain, after the latter sent him a "conflict of interest" notice. Laxman in his reply had stated that Committee of Administrators (CoA) didn't involve the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) members in the selection process of the Indian women's team national coach.

This has brought back the question that CoA member Diana Edulji had time and again asked chief Vinod Rai and BCCI CEO Rahul Johri at that time as to what was the hurry in forming an ad-hoc committee to name the next women's coach, rather than giving the CAC trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Laxman more time to appoint the next coach.

Speaking to IANS, a senior BCCI official said that Edulji's stance was vindicated by the letter from Laxman and once again showed the unprofessional approach of the CoA in the whole matter of selecting the next women's coach.

"A lot of noise was made over how Diana was being unreasonable and what not but Laxman's version has actually put things in perspective and it is shocking how the legends of the game have been treated in this entire episode. To think of it, they may have only one more year on a cricket committee and that would be nothing short of disastrous for Indian cricket. Especially when you consider the fact that they have not really been utilised and have in fact been ignored," official said.

Back in December, Edulji in her mail to GM Cricket Operations Saba Karim, Rai and Johri had written: "Let me reiterate that as per the judgement of 9th Aug 2019 the head coach can only be done by the CAC. We had approached them and they requested for time and directions for their role. Thus the constituting of the ad hoc committee is unconstitutional and I have stated that before the advert was released.

"I feel we are going down the wrong track and I again state that this committee or selection of head coach is not right. Only the CAC can take a call on this and if they refuse (which they haven't) then COA has to take the call just like we did in nominating a selector for the junior team."

Back then, it was Johri who in his reply to Edulji's mail, accessed by IANS, had written about going ahead with the formation of an ad hoc committee to select the next women's coach on the approval of Rai.

(With IANS inputs)