Auditor, historian to run BCCI

New delhi: Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai, named on Monday as head of a Supreme Court-appointed four-member panel of administrators to oversee implementation of the Justice R.M. Lodha panel’s recommendations on reforms in the cricket control board,  summed up his job succinctly.

“My role is that of a night-watchman in a sense that we need to put in place good governance, good system and structure in place to ensure a smooth transition to an elected body which in future will bring about good administration in BCCI,” he said on the day.

Also on the panel are historian Ramachandra Guha, Infrastructure Development Finance Company managing director Vikram Limaye and former India women cricket captain Diana Edulji.

For once, there was a deafening silence from former players, administrators and talking heads about the Supreme Court’s step, which will see the group of four take charge with immediate effect and liaise with BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri on its functioning. He will report to the committee. Johri will meanwhile, oversee the daily administration of the board after he was put in charge in an interim order on January 20 until the committee was appointed.

Said former Test skipper Edulji, who has managed a raft of Railways teams in the past and is the only one to have played international cricketer in the group, “I have not yet received my terms of reference in  black and white. I have three esteemed colleagues in the four member team. It will be our collective responsibility to take Indian cricket forward.

“I have managed 40 Railways teams and that has given me some administrative experience. But definitely the BCCI is huge body and the pressure will be entirely different.”

It was also confirmed that Limaye, along with existing BCCI office-bearers Amitabh Choudhury (acting secretary) and Anirudh Chaudhary (treasurer) will attend the quarterly round of the International Cricket Council’s meetings in Dubai between February 2 and 5.

“This is my first foray into cricket administration,” the banker was  quoted as saying. “Obviously, I will speak to my colleagues in BCCI,  understand the philosophy of the Board and also analyse and view the circumstances of the past.

“I have just exchanged a text message with Mr Guha. We will have a detailed discussion with him in the evening. One part of our job will be to implement the reforms of the Justice Lodha panel. But that is only a part of the job.

“There are a lot of things that we need to sit down and figure out as to how we will be going about our job,” said Limaye, an alumni of the prestigious Wharton School of Business.