MV Sridhar, the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s general manager of cricket operations, resigned from his post on Wednesday following a meeting with the Committee of Administrators in Mumbai, reported PTI. Sridhar was under the scanner because of allegations of financial impropriety while heading the Hyderabad Cricket Association and had taken a few controversial decisions during his BCCI stint.
BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri will be the new head of cricket operations, supported by a three-member team comprising Mayank Parik (International Cricket, Logistics), KVP Rao (Domestic Cricket) and Gaurav Saxena (for International Cricket Council/Asian Cricket Council matters, co-ordination with other international boards and point person for the Indian men’s cricket team).
“Please note that Dr MV Sridhar has decided to move on and tendered his resignation,” Johri wrote in an email to the BCCI’s office-bearers. “His resignation has been accepted today by the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (COA). Dr Sridhar has agreed to stay on till September 30, 2017 for smooth handover of work. We thank him for his services to BCCI.”
“Sridhar was time and again told to relocate to Mumbai and operate from there,” a senior BCCI official told PTI. “However, he was shuttling between Hyderabad and Mumbai, which was not the best way to function for the head of cricket operations.”
The incident that proved to be the last straw for the CoA was the appointment of a trainer called Sohum Desai at the National Cricket Academy. Desai was working at the Indian team’s strength and conditioning coach Shankar Basu’s Chennai-based gym Primal Patterns. Sridhar had told told PTI that Desai was appointed after he came second in the trainer’s test. “The boy stood second in the test and there is no conflict of interest in this case,” he had said.
Before that, Sridhar had irked a few people in the BCCI by scrapping the Duleep Trophy. The tournament was later restored by the CoA.