Appointment of auditor unlikely before bidding

New Delhi, October 23 

The Indian cricket board, eagerly awaiting a response from the Justice RM Lodha panel on the appointment of an independent auditor, may not get one on October 25 as the three-member committee is not meeting tomorrow. 

The panel comprising former Chief Justice of India Lodha, Ashok Bhan and RV Raveendran are based in different cities and it looks practically impossible that they would be meeting tomorrow with a day left for opening of bidding for broadcast, mobile and internet rights.

The panel was supposed to meet on October 21 but that was later cancelled. “BCCI while floating the tender and announcing the date never consulted with the committee and now that’s coming to bite them. And also it’s still two years to go. What’s the hurry? The panel will be meeting and asking for all the documents and then coming to a decision. It will take some time as a lot of things need to be checked,” a BCCI source said.

The BCCI is getting edgy at the moment as a lot of representatives from the 18 international bidders who have bought the ITT documents will have their travel and business schedule in disarray. “It was a process where our auditors, legal firm along with two independent faces from the global media industry would be vetting the tenders. The BCCI bigwigs will only be spectators. Our only job is to announce the names as it is an independent process. If we don’t get any response, we don’t know what to do,” the source said. — PTI