Thakur had no right to approach ICC: Supreme Court

Tribune News Service 

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, October 21

The Supreme Court today asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman, Shashank Manohar, to state if BCCI president Anurag Thakur had approached him seeking a clarification or a letter on the court’s directive to have a nominee of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the board. A Bench, headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur, held that Thakur  had no right to even seek a clarification from Manohar as to whether the inclusion of a CAG nominee would result in ICC de-recognising BCCI on the basis of “governmental interference” in the affairs of the board as it was against the ICC rules.

At the last hearing, Thakur’s senior counsel Kapil Sibal had informed the Bench that his client had only sought an oral clarification from Manohar, not any letter on the issue. But the Bench noted that Thakur had talked to ICC on August 22, 2016, a month after the SC had ruled that CAG nominee was a must. The Bench also noted that ICC CEO David Richardson and BCCI General Manager Ratnakar Shetty had gone on record stating that Thakur had in fact sought a letter from ICC on the CAG issue.

The Bench, however, said it was deferring consideration of the action to be taken against Thakur for his conduct for the time being.