The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s stepping up the pace in its bid to seal suspended IPL chairman Lait Modi’s fate and Saturday will be be the first big step towards that end.
Modi tops the agenda at BCCI’s special general body meeting in Mumbai this weekend, which is officially expected to ratify board secretary N. Srinivasan’s action in referring the charges issued in the three showcause notices served to the embattled administrator onto the disciplinary committee for further proceedings.
There is though a possibility that the board could invoke the constitution to expel Modi there and then. According to the rules, a 3/4th majority is needed at the SGM to expel an administrator.
And given that a very few Modi backers are expected to attend the meeting - Karnataka Cricket Association member and Royal Challengers Bangalore owner Vijay Mallya is unavailable and Punjab Cricket Association officials are yet to return to India from the ICC’s executive board meeting in Singapore - the opportunity is there.
Srinivasan however said on Friday that the SGM would only decide whether to approve his observation that Modi’s reply to showcause notices were “unacceptable” or not.
And if his observation is ratified, Srinivasan said, the SGM would reconstitute the disciplinary committee from which board president Shashank Manohar has recused himself.
“It will ratify my action as the secretary. In which case we would re-constitute the disciplinary committee,” Srinivasan said. “No final decision will be taken on Modi’s case by the SGM.”
The IPL governing council members and representatives of franchises had been informed of Modi’s alleged irregularities in their respective meeting with the board officials on June 24 and 25 in Mumbai.
The governing council members have already been provided with copies of the three show cause notices issued to Modi and his voluminous replies to them.
Title sponsors
The BCCI’s marketing committee will also meet prior to the SGM, to decide on issue of tenders for sale of title sponsorship rights for its home Test and ODI rubbers. Tenders would be floated for TV production rights too by the BCCI as only the broadcasting rights have been bagged by Nimbus.