Cricket board sacks more officials with links to N Srinivasan
The Indian cricket board’s new regime continues to remove officials with links to India Cements, a company owned by erstwhile BCCI president N Srinivasan. The latest to get the sack is Team India’s long-time logistics manager M A Satheesh, who was appointed by the previous administration and earned more than the chairman of selectors and Grade B players.
Earlier, the contract of chief financial officer Prasanna Kannan, who in the past has worked for India Cements, was also terminated. Both Satheesh and Kannan were originally contracted till 2017. Team media manager and a Srinivasan loyalist from the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, Dr R N Baba, too isn’t part of the tour party to Bangladesh.
While Satheesh used to draw Rs 72 lakh annually, national selector Sandeep Patil gets Rs 60 lakh while a junior selector earns Rs 40 lakh. Grade B contracted players like Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane get Rs 50 lakh as annual retainership. Dr Baba was paid Rs 5 lakh per tour.
“Satheesh’s contract was brought to our notice and we were surprised to find that a logistics manager was getting paid Rs 6 lakh monthly. Not just that, even during off season he used to get the same amount. The appointment raised too many questions. The board has terminated the contract of all the staff working in the president and secretary’s office in Chennai and Vadodara,” a senior official in the new set-up told The Sunday Express.
Satheesh had got a three-year contract during a working committee in February this year. As an additional perk, he was entitled to receive benefits like daily allowance and bonus if announced by the board after a tournament win.
The matter was brought to the notice of the new board secretary, Anurag Thakur, who initiated the move to terminate Satheesh’s contract. Thakur refused to comment on the issue. Sathesh also didn’t reply when asked about the termination of his contract.
Earlier, hearing the IPL corruption case, the Supreme Court had made note of conflict of interest of the then BCCI chief Srinivasan also owning an IPL team through his company India Cements, and asked India Cements to distance itself from the BCCI activities or Srinivas to resign from his corporate position.
India Cements owns IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings.
However, soon after the Supreme Court order, those with India Cements links were reinstated in the BCCI board.
Biswarup Dey has been named as administrative manager and Rishikesh Upadhayaya logistic manager for the India tour of Bangladesh.
