Ian Chappell miffed with CoA chief Vinod Rai for roadblocking Day-night Tests in India

Chappell urged cricket’s biggest stakeholders to support the idea of day-night Test.

Ian Chappell isn’t pleased with the functioning of Supreme Court-appointed CoA | PTI

Former Australia skipper Ian Chappell has lambasted the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai for becoming a constant barrier in the hosting of day-night Tests in India.

Earlier last month, Vinod Rai had openly criticized BCCI for proposing that India and West Indies will play a day-night Test match in October. Rai was not pleased with the fact that BCCI officials didn’t discuss this move with CoA members.

In his column for Hindustan Times, Chappell wrote that the disruption within the BCCI gives the clear picture of where the cricket administration is heading.

“The confusion surrounding the BCCI’s attempts to program its first Day/Night Test mirrors perfectly the state of cricket administration worldwide. The fact that cricket’s most prosperous - and therefore most powerful - administration, the BCCI, is beholden to a Committee of Administrators (CoA) is a black mark on the game,” Ian Chappell wrote.

“To then have the CoA overrule the BCCI’s attempts to play a Day/Night Test against the West Indies on the basis that any decision should include consultation with “the players, the administrators and the fans”, is even more damning. At a time when cricket needs clearheaded decision making and long-term planning, confusion seems to be the prevalent emotion,” he added.

Chappell, who is widely deemed as one of the greatest captains to represent Australia, also urged cricket’s biggest stakeholders to support the idea of day-night Test.

“Test cricket is a game in dire need of nurturing and one solution is to play matches under lights. So far the Day/Night Test experiment has proved worthwhile but it needs the support of its biggest stakeholder. India’s current progress on programming a Day/Night Test appears to be more akin to “fiddling while Rome burns”,” Chappell penned it down.

While taking a decision to host day-night Test against West Indies later this year, BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary had consulted India’s head coach Ravi Shastri, BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, the acting President CK Khanna, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary, ex-India wicketkeeper Saba Karim and operations manager Gaurav Saxena. However, he somehow kept the CoA members out of it.  

BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary had consulted India coach Ravi Shastri, BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, the acting President CK Khanna, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary, ex-India wicketkeeper Saba Karim and operations manager Gaurav Saxena but kept the CoA out of the communication process. And that didn’t go down well with Rai who lambasted the board members in his mail.

“You seem to have discussed with all the stakeholders, who in your scheme of things constitute four persons sitting in the (BCCI) cricket centre — a very misplaced viewpoint. Even if it be cricket of which all of you certainly have greater knowledge than me, (I’m excluding Diana (Edulji, former India women’s team skipper), who has greater knowledge than all of you! I represent the viewing population. They are your greatest stakeholder,” Rai had said.

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 05 Mar, 2018

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