Historian Ramachandra Guha quit on Thursday from the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) to look after the day to day affairs of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and implementing the recommendations made by Justice RM Lodha Commission.
On Friday, Guha wrote a letter to the chairman of COA, Vinod Rai, explaining the reasons behind his resignation.
Guha was not happy with COA's failure to address conflict of interest issues related to working for Indian team and IPL. Pointing that Delhi Daredevils coach Rahul Dravid is also responsible for India A and India Junior team.
BCCI officials and COA have allowed the superstar culture to fester in Indian cricket and have been complicit in it. Even COA hasn't done enough to break the superstar culture, where some players get an undue advantage, alleges Ram Guha in his resignation letter.
He wrote about BCCI signing the contract with Sunil Gavaskar as a commentator despite knowing that he is the head of a player management company that also handles Shikhar Dhawan.
Naming another cricket star, the historian also questioned MS Dhoni getting Grade A contract despite not playing Test cricket last year.
One reasons the conflict of interest issue has lingered unaddressed is that several of the game’s superstars, past and present, have been guilty of it. The BCCI management is too much in awe of these superstars to question their violation of norms and procedures. For their part, BCCI office-bearers like to enjoy discretionary powers, so that the coaches or commentators they favour are indebted to them and do not ever question their own mistake or malpractice. But surely a Supreme Court-appointed body should not be intimidated by the past or present achievements of a cricketer, and instead, seek to strive to be fair and just.
The letter also says that Guha was not happy with COA neglecting domestic cricketers, their silence on disqualified officials attending BCCI meetings and absence of male cricketer in COA.
Amidst ongoing Anil Kumble-Virat Kohli rift issue, Guha also expressed his concern over Indian dressing room's influence on selecting their coach.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court said a special bench was seized of the matter and the petition should, therefore, be filed in the registry.
Advocate Rakesh Sinha, who mentioned the matter of resignation before the bench, said he had filed the petition to inform the court about Guha's decision to resign as the main matter would be coming up for hearing in July.
