CoA directs BCCI to immediately announce Indian squad for Champions Trophy

There has been a lot of confusion over Team India’s participation in the Champions Trophy 2017, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is at loggerheads with the International Cricket Council (ICC) and have bypassed the cut-off date for announcing the team for the tournament which was April 25. But with under a month to go for the start of CT 2017, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) has directed the BCCI to immediately announce the Indian squad for the tourney.

While the board has shown its willingness to pull out of all ICC event the CoA has made it expressly clear that such a decision cannot be taken by the BCCI without a permission from the administrators appointed by the Supreme Court of India headed by Vinod Rai. Using their authority the committee has now made the decision that the Indian team will participate in the tournament and asked secretary Amitabh Chaudhary to convene the selection meeting.

“Please convene meeting of selection committee for selecting the squad immediately. There has been more than enough negativity surrounding team’s participation in Champions Trophy, sooner its put to rest better,” COA told Chaudhary.

“The players’ interests are paramount and they must be given the best chance to prepare for, defend and retain ICC Champions Trophy,” said COA.

The negotiations between the two governing bodies heated up after the ICC Board rejected BCCI’s plea to reconsider the financial decision and roll back to the Big Three model which gave the Indian board the largest chunk of the revenue of the ICC. It was also reported that the BCCI has hired a law firm in the UK to send a legal notice to the ICC while there were also speculations that in an alternate case the board might opt to send a second-string squad to the tournament.

The sense of uncertainty caused anxiety among the broadcasters and sponsors of the tournament as well and they opted to write a letter to the ICC requesting them to sort things out with the Indian governing body to ensure that the team does play the tournament which would otherwise lead to huge losses.

CoA had earlier also stated that the Indian captain Virat Kohli and head coach Anil Kumble were disappointed with the developments and that they were given an assurance about the team’s participation in the Champions Trophy where they will be defending their title.

BCCI’s response to it is yet awaited and the stance that they have maintained in recent times doesn’t suggest that they will oblige to the call without resistance.