Reports: BCCI official attempted to stall India England limited-overs tour

The limited-overs leg of England’s tour of India got underway today with the first warm-up match between India A and England which will be followed by another practice game and then the teams will meet in the first ODI at Pune on January 15. Meanwhile, a report in DNA suggests that a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official got in touch with England Cricket Board (ECB) president Giles Clarke and asked him to cancel the tour after Supreme Court of India’s verdict on January 2.

The SC had sacked the then president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke while also making a list of other administrators ineligible to hold office any longer. It is believed that the official tried to convince Clarke to “not send English team to India back for One-day and T20 series”.

Information about such a conversation was conveyed to the Lodha Committee. Gopal Shankarnarayan the secretary of the committee said: “I think it’s now evident as to who is really functioning in the interest of cricket. Once they don’t have positions of power, they are attempting to interfere with games, make phone calls to selectors and to request the opposition not to arrive in India, there are all evidences of desperate measures.”

Earlier accepting the apex court’s order the BCCI had to appoint a Chief Executive Officer in Rahul Johri but not a lot of officials are happy with his appointment and have been trying to create hurdles to project that the functioning has been affected due to it.

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“Everything is being reported in media so whether to bring it to the notice of SC is something that Lodha panel would discuss in due course,” said a source in Lodha panel.