The Committee of Administrator (CoA) has given green signal to the commentators associated with BCCI to write columns for Newspapers and be a part of sponsor award/rating program. The Supreme Court formed the committee was discussing in their favor since last few meetings and now they have announced it.

“After the discussion, the COA decided that it would not impose any prohibition on commentators from either (i) writing sponsored columns for a newspaper; and /or (ii) participating in sponsored awards/rating programs,” read BCCI’s website soon after the announcement from December 4 meeting.

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Earlier, commentators associated with BCCI signed a conflict of interest discloser forms. Thus, Sunil Gavaskar, Harsha Bhogle, Sanjay Manjrekar and Murali Karthik were reduced to be only associated with the board, which led Gavaskar to shut his Professional Management Group (PMG). However, CoA felt that this rule is harming the freedom of speech and expression of these professionals and they decided against it.

Meanwhile, BCCI’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) chief Neeraj Kumar may not get an extension of this post, which will end with this year’s Indian Premier League. CoA is looking for his successor, who may get this post. Also, the appointed person’s tenure will begin from March 1 but Kumar will stay on his post until the end of IPL.

“A search committee comprising the Chairman and a retired police officer above 65 years of age should be constituted to look for a replacement once the current head of the Anti-Corruption Unit retires and such replacement should be offered a contract of 3 years of duration,” The potential candidate should be a retired IPS officer of DGP/ADGP rank, the minutes state.