By Ashis Ray, IANS
Leeds : The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) decision to reject Essel Group’s proposal to operate a Twenty20 tournament, now christened the Indian Cricket League (ICL), is said to have been influenced by Board president Sharad Pawar second guessing the project’s intentions rather than going by the letter of the communication on the matter, it was revealed by a BCCI official.
A member of BCCI’s executive committee who attended the meeting that adopted its stand on ICL revealed that Pawar claimed he knew Subhash Chandra, head of Essel Group, for a long time and that his real objective was to take over the cricket administration in India.
According to the source, the Essel Group’s correspondence to the BCCI carried no hint of ICL usurping the BCCI as the game’s administrator in India.
At a press conference here Sunday night, Pawar, when asked if he thought ICL was attempting to replace the BCCI, evaded the question. He described ICL as a private company with investors and a profit motive, adding that players cannot be involved with both BCCI and ICL.