The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) members are unhappy with the role of the PR company, Adfactors, and it is latest rift subject between the board members and Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA).
After the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal come out, the PR company has been hired to refurbish the board’s image. However, the board members are unhappy with their performance as they believe the PR company is working to please the CoA.
Talking about that, a senior BCCI official told CricketNext, “‘Theatre of the Absurd.’ That is the only way to describe it. The BCCI is paying for the propagation of stories and interviews against the BCCI, its members and its office bearers. The CoA unilaterally decided upon continuing with the services of this firm for public relations of the BCCI but they only push stories that show the BCCI or its office bearers in poor light. This is a pattern that only peaks near a date of hearing in the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
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“The representative of this company travels for court hearings while the office bearers are barred from travelling or even engaging lawyers which is essentially a right guaranteed by our Constitution. So, the BCCI cannot pay for its lawyers to put forth its case before the Hon’ble Supreme Court but the BCCI must pay to propagate stories that may create negative public opinion before a date of hearing.”
According to the CricketNext, BCCI is paying INR 12,65,000 monthly to them which the members believe unnecessary as they have own media department.
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The official said about that, “The BCCI has its own media department and issues media releases on any matter that requires to be in the public domain. Are we paying them to discredit our own organisation? To engage an agency for holding press conferences and interviews of administrators does seem like a waste of money when the organisation has its own department for this.”
