The Board of Control for Cricket in India will work on finalising India’s revised Future Tours Program and the domestic season when it conducts its fourth apex council meeting on July 17.
The meeting, like the last emergent meeting on May 6, will be held online amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The nine-member Council could also discuss the raging issue of Chinese sponsorship in the Indian Premier League.
However, any matter concerning the IPL can only be officially taken up by its Governing Council, which had called for a meeting to review Chinese sponsorship in the wake of the standoff between India and China in Ladakh last month but is yet to come up with a date.
The Indian team, which last played in the first week of March, was scheduled to tour Sri Lanka for a limited-overs series in June-July but that series has been postponed indefinitely due to pandemic. A tour of Zimbabwe in August has also been postponed.
With Covid-19 cases rising rapidly in India, it is not clear when the players can assemble for a training camp although individually, some of them have hit the nets.
Discussion on finalising domestic cricket schedule is also on the agenda. The previous season ended with the Ranji Trophy final in March before the lockdown was enforced, leading to the indefinite postponement of the subsequent Irani Cup.
In all probability, it will be a curtailed domestic season especially if the IPL is played in the September-October window which the BCCI has zeroed on, subject to the fate of the T20 World Cup in October-November.
Last month, the ICC gave BCCI a deadline extension till December on seeking tax exemption for the T20 World Cup to be held in India next month. “That issue will also come up for discussion,” a BCCI official told PTI. Besides, the Council will have a discussion on “issues concerning Bihar Cricket Association”.
The CAG nominees in the council Alka Rehani Bhardwaj has also cautioned the board on ensuring that only the eligible office-bearers attend the meeting.
“The President/Joint Secretary BCCI [who would be presumably officiating as Secretary after vacation of Secretary BCCI post] need to also ensure that fourth Apex Council meeting is attended by only members, eligible as per the Constitution,” she wrote in an e-mail to the council members.
“Any decision on this matter may please be backed by facts and endorsed legally. This is being reiterated only to ensure compliance with Honourable Supreme Court approved Constitution,” she added.
The BCCI has sought a term extension for its president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah until 2025 from the Supreme Court.
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