New Delhi: A three-man BCCI panel comprising eminent journalist N Ram, BCCI acting president CK Khanna and acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary has recommended former India women’s team captain and current CoA member, Diana Edulji, for the prestigious ‘CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement’ award. Along with Edulji, former India opener late Pankaj Roy will also be awarded posthumously.
Edulji played 20 Tests and 34 ODIs in a career spanning over 17 years, taking 63 and 46 wickets respectively.
While Edulji’s contribution as a pioneer of women’s cricket movement in the country is unquestionable, the murmur in the BCCI corridors is about the timing of such a recommendation when she is a part of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) running Indian cricket.
CoA chief Vinod Rai was asked Saturday if this is a case of conflict of interest. “The committee is headed by Mr N Ram. I didn’t even know about the recommendations. It doesn’t come to us at all,” said Rai.
When the acting secretary was contacted, he refused to divulge the names. “I will never divulge the names recommended by our panel,” Choudhary told this agency.
“However if you want to know my take on conflict of interest, I can tell you what I think. If the committee is not influenced by any outsiders when it takes a decision, I don’t think there’s any conflict of interest,” Choudhary added.
A veteran BCCI official on condition of anonymity said: “No one can ever question Diana’s contribution towards growth of women’s cricket in India. But she is being recommended at a time when she is one of the figure heads of BCCI. Conflict of interest is not about direct conflicts but about perceptions.
“Whenever I see these situations, I feel bad for Roger Binny, who was dumped from selection panel as his son Stuart is an active cricketer.”
Meanwhile Pankaj Roy’s son Pranab, himself a former Test player, was ecstatic to hear the news. “Dad would have got emotional had he been around. We as a family always felt that my father always got his recognition late, but better late than never. My mother will be overjoyed to hear this news,” Pranab stated.
Roy played 43 Tests scoring 2442 runs with five hundreds. He will always be remembered for his world record opening stand of 413 runs with Vinoo Mankad against New Zealand in Chennai (then Madras) in 1956. The record stood for 52 years.
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