BCCI’s second Apex Council meeting on Sunday will see some interesting progress where the appointment of an ethics officer and release of funds for the Indian Cricketers’ Association (ICA) will be cleared. BCCI appointed Justice D. K. Jain in February last year who was the BCCI’s first-ever ombudsman that too on a one-year term and he was also involved in seeing some high-profile conflict of interest allegations against Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Kapil Dev.

However, it will be interesting to see if he gets an extension or the Sourav Ganguly-led board look for a fresh appointment. Along with this, another significant move on the agenda of the nine-member Council will be the release of funds to ICA, India’s first-ever players’ association formed as per recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha panel as well.

The ICA has been looking for funds from the BCCI since the new committee came into power in October. Because of no funding till now the players’ body doesn’t have an office and has not been able to meet regularly also.

Read here: Marnus Labuschagne Grateful for Sachin Tendulkar’s Praise

Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy, ICA representatives on the Apex Council, are expected to talk about the issue of pensions to junior and domestic cricketers, who have not featured a lot. In its first meeting in October, ICA had given a budget of Rs 15-20 crore. However, they will receive an initial grant from the BCCI as of now.

The Apex Council, which had its first and only meeting so far on November 30, is needed to meet at least once in three months. Along with this, the schedule of the 2020-21 home season will also be discussed. Even, the replacement for former CFO Santosh Rangnekar will also be finalised, who had resigned in November last year. Moreover, CAG nominee Alka Rehani Bhardwaj who was appointed in December will make her first appearance at the apex council meeting as well.