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The BCCI is likely to recommend an ethics commission inquiry against
former ICC official David Becker for having gone public with
confidential information related to the game's governance in a statement
last week. The ICC's executive board will meet in London on October 17
and 18, and it is expected that the Becker statement will be brought
into focus again.
In his statement
released to the media last week, Becker had said it was "improper" to
allow a member body to "blatantly disregard an ICC resolution".
Becker was referring to the uncertainty over India's tour of South
Africa, which was originally scheduled to begin on November 18. Becker
had left the ICC in July 2012, due to what he called "questionable
governance" within the organisation. His statement listed three
examples, all relating to the "dominance of BCCI President N
Srinivasan"; the "most concerning one" related to the FTP issue over the
Indian tour to South Africa.
The BCCI's plan to call for an Ethics Committee inquiry is said to be
based on their "evidence" that, at the time of making a public
statement, Becker was an acting advisor to Cricket South Africa. BCCI
insiders allege that Becker's statement came at the behest of an "aide"
within CSA. The BCCI is expected to use this argument to appeal to other
Full Members to avoid recurrence of a Becker-like situation that could
be, in the words of a BCCI insider, "damaging" for the governance of
cricket by any official involved in the game.
Another important issue that is likely to come up for discussion during
the two-day meeting is the appointment of the first ICC chairman, an
all-powerful executive head of ICC. In 2012, the ICC executive board had
reduced
the role of the ICC president to a ceremonial one and amended its
constitution, vesting executive powers in the chairman. The 10 Full
Members had unanimously agreed that the ICC president's post would
become a rotational one from 2014 while a chairman would lead the
executive board and take all important decisions.
It is understood that N Srinivasan and Giles Clarke, the two main
contenders for the post of chairman, met over lunch on Tuesday.
The executive board had stated that the creation of the post of chairman
was "consistent with recommendations in the Woolf Report." Lord Woolf,
leading the ICC's independent governance review, had submitted
a 60-page report last year wherein he made 65 radical recommendations.
One of his recommendations was a complete revamp of the ICC's executive
structure, while another suggested a decline in the role of Full Members
and the handover of powers to independent directors. Of all his
recommendations, the creation of the post of chairman has been taken on
by ICC's executive board with alacrity.
According to the Woolf recommendations, the ICC's chairman should not
hold any leadership or executive post in their home boards. It is a
condition that may be of interest both to Srinivasan, the BCCI
president, and Clarke, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board.
The agenda for the meeting does not feature Becker or the position of
the ICC chairman, but discussions are likely to be held on the sidelines
and have their own consequences.
One of the more important points on the agenda concerns the discussion
and final decision on the four venues of the World Twenty20, scheduled
to be played in Bangladesh between March 16 and April 6, 2014.
After its annual conference in June, ICC had extended
the deadline to August to ensure that the four venues met required
standards. The report of the ICC's inspection panel, which recently
completed its tour of the four venues - Sylhet, Cox's Bazaar, Chittagong
and Mirpur - will be submitted to the executive board.
The ICC's executive board comprises the heads of every Full Member
board, three representatives from the Associates and Affiliates, and the
ICC's president, vice-president and chief executive.
Amol Karhadkar is a correspondent at ESPNcricinfo; Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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