BCCI to discuss CSK valuation, future of CLT20

The low valuation of the Chennai Super Kings franchise, and the future of the Champions League Twenty20 will be the two main items in the agenda during the BCCI's first working committee meeting under the stewardship of newly-installed president Jagmohan Dalmiya.

The meeting, to be held in Kolkata on Sunday, will incidentally not be attended by Dalimiya's predecessor N Srinivasan, but will feature two of his staunchest opponents, both former board presidents, Sharad Pawar and Shashank Manohar.

Chennai Super Kings' valuation

The members will debate the various decisions taken during previous IPL governing council meetings, held after September 30 last year. The most heated topic of discussion, though, is likely to be the exact valuation of Chennai Super Kings. In order to comply with the Supreme Court order delivered in January, India Cements Limited, which owns the team, proposed to transfer control of the Super Kings franchise to a trust at only Rs five lakh (approx. $8000), as part of a process to delink the former board president from the franchise. But incidentally, Srinivasan is one of the trustees of that trust.

That proposal was approved by the previous IPL governing council at its meeting on February 27, three days before Dalmiya was elected at the BCCI AGM in March.

However, the newly constituted IPL governing council, in its first meeting held last week in Delhi, deliberated on the Super Kings proposal and decided to bring up the matter at the working committee. It is likely the committee may appoint an independent valuer to ensure that the board does not miss out on any transaction fee, which is mandatory under the franchise agreement.

The Champions League Twenty20

The working committee will seek an update on the Champions League, a tournament whose fate has almost always been in question throughout its six years. It is understood that most of the stakeholders want the tournament scrapped, but it will not be a straightforward decision to make as domestic teams from five other countries will stand to suffer huge financial losses. Since 2012, the tournament has featured four Indian teams, and consequently, most of the IPL sides' sponsorship deals are based on the team's qualification for the tournament.

Beefing up the anti-corruption unit

The IPL governing council on Monday announced the appointment of former Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar and Madhusudan Sharma as consultants to the BCCI's anti-corruption unit. Those appointment need to be ratified, but the decision has not gone down well with some of the BCCI members who feel such appointments can only be made by the working committee and not any of the sub-committees.

India's head coach

Duncan Fletcher's extended tenure as India's coach came to an end after the World Cup. As did Ravi Shastri's appointment as team director. With more than a month to go for India's next international assignment - a short tour of Bangladesh in June - the BCCI is not in a hurry to kick-start the hunt for a new coach.

However, it is likely that the members will be briefed that a panel consisting some of India's former captains will soon be constituted and given the charge to seek applications for the coach's post. There is also a school of thought among some BCCI bigwigs that if they can rope in a team director on a full-time basis with specialist Indian coaches to aid him, the team will not require a head coach at all.

Unofficial global cricket leagues

Among other important issues listed on the agenda is an update by BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur on the ICC chief executives' meeting. The ICC meeting reportedly discussed the floating of various websites by the Essel group in multiple cricket-playing nations in what is being perceived as a possible threat to the world of cricket. Thakur is expected to elaborate on the proceedings of the ICC meeting and the possible measures to prevent another bout of unofficial cricket leagues.

Essel group's Indian Cricket League ran into various controversies before being forced to pull on the shutters in 2009. The group has already registered cricket-related website urls in Australia, New Zealand, England and Scotland. Such websites cannot be accessed by the public due to firewalls.