NCA chief Niranjan Shah accuses CoA of usurping BCCI administration

New Delhi: National Cricket Academy (NCA) Chief Niranjan R Shah, in a strongly-worded letter, has derided the Committee of Administration (CoA), saying the Supreme Court had appointed it to 'supervise the administration and not to usurp it.'

The Vinod Rai-led committee held a meeting of the NCA last week in Bengaluru and reportedly some of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) office-bearers and NCA top brass were not invited.

Following the meeting, the BCCI had named Tufan Ghosh as the Chief Operating Officer of the NCA in Bengaluru.

Disappointed by the development, Niranjan Shah wrote a letter to the BCCI and CoA, accusing them of intentionally avoiding calling him for NCA meetings.

"I am the Chairman of the National Cricket Academy. For some reason unknown to me, it appears that the BCCI has intentionally avoided inviting me to attend and chair the NCA meetings. I have got to know from newspapers that the organisation has since appointed Mr Ghosh as the COO of the NCA. This comes as quite a surprise to me since neither the plan for the NCA nor this post nor the process was ever discussed in a meeting of the NCA in my presence. I am unaware if the same had been presented to the committee of NCA in my absence," Shah said.

"While I offer no comment about Mr Ghosh and I am sure he is a fine gentleman with good credentials, I wish to say that the plan and his proposed duties have never been made known to me or to the committee. Additionally, I am unable to understand as to why I have been kept out of the work that pertains to the very subcommittee that I chair i.e. the National Cricket Academy," he added in a letter.

The NCA chairman further pointed out that the CoA was created to mainly carry out two tasks i.e to implement the Lodha panel reforms and to supervise the administration and not to usurp the management of the BCCI.

"I would respectfully like to state that there is a marked difference between supervision and actual act of administration. The CoA was inter-alia appointed to supervise the administration of the BCCI which is to take place as per the rules and regulations in place, and accordingly also supervise and control the elected office bearers of the BCCI. The intent was for the CoA to supervise the administration and not to usurp the administration," Shah said.

Earlier, Shah had stepped down from the post of the secretary of the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) as he became ineligible to hold office as per the guidelines of the Justice (Retd) RM Lodha-led committee.

Niranjan called on the Supreme Court-appointed committee to follow the set rules besides also asking BCCI to permit him to function as NCA chief.

"Separately, I was also pained to see from news reports that say that the COA has appointed itself as the working committee of the BCCI. If true, it is shocking to say the least. It is respectfully submitted that no order or the Hon'ble Supreme Court directs the dissolution of any committee of the BCCI leave alone the Working Committee. The Working Committee, therefore, is very much in existence as per the Rules and Regulations of the BCCI. Moreover, the COA simply lacks the necessary experience and the number of members necessary for varying opinions and healthy discussions to arrive at well-mended decisions," he said.

It should be noted that the NCA has been a second home for most cricketers across all age groups for skills enhancement, training, strength conditioning, fitness assessment, and recuperation and regularly hosts camps for national teams.