Mumbai: BCCI acting President C K Khanna on Saturday urged the Committee of Administrators (CoA) to lift the suspension on Hardik Pandya and K L Rahul for their much-criticised sexist remarks and refused to convene a Special General Meeting (SGM) on the matter.
Khanna has maintained that calling the SGM to appoint an ombudsman to investigate the two players’ conduct, as demanded by Board officials, wouldn’t be right as the Supreme Court is due to take up the issue next week.
Pandya and Rahul have been suspended pending an inquiry for their controversial remarks on Karan Johar’s chat show ‘Koffee With Karan’.
In a letter to the CoA, Khanna said, “They made a mistake, and they have already been suspended and called back from the series against Australia. They have also submitted an unconditional apology.”
“I suggest that pending inquiry we reinstate both the cricketers into the Indian squad immediately and allow them to join the team in New Zealand at the earliest,” he added.
The acting president urged the CoA and BCCI office-bearers to resolve the matter as soon as possible.
“What Hardik Pandya said and K.L. Rahul acted as a by-stander to is inappropriate and absolutely wrong, but in my personal opinion, to treat them like lawbreakers is wrong too,” he wrote.
“Both these cricketers need game time before the World Cup which starts in four months time. We should give these growing cricketers chance to correct themselves morally,” he signed off.
Around 14 state units, mainly former BCCI president N Srinivasan’s loalists, had requested Khanna to convene an emergent SGM, which needs to be called in 10 days.
BCCI Treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry also wrote to Khanna requesting for an early SGM, so that board members can take a call on the appointment of .
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