New Delhi:Former ICC president and current Cricket South Africa (CSA) CEO, Haroon Lorgat says he is still not aware why the BCCI is upset with him but hopes his strained relation with the Indian board would heal with time.
Lorgat and the BCCI had difference of opinion on a few key issues during his tenure as the ICC chief from 2008 to 2012. Some issues which they disagreed included the Decision Review System (DRS) and the Lord Woolf Commission, which was initiated by Lorgat.
Things got more bitter when the BCCI expressed its opposition to the appointment of Lorgat as CSA’s CEO after left the post of president in International Cricket Council.
With CSA eventually appointing Lorgat as its CEO in July 2013, there were speculations that India’s proposed tour to South Africa in December that year might be called off. BCCI later agreed to a shortened tour only after the CSA agreed to bar Lorgat from dealing with matters related to India and from attending ICC Executive Meetings as CSA representative.
Lorgat was also in the middle of an ICC inquiry, which eventually cleared him last year of alleged involvement in the FTP manipulation charges levelled against the BCCI by David Becker, who was the ICC legal adviser throughout Lorgat’s tenure as CEO of the world body. However, Lorgat said he is still in dark about BCCI’s reservations against him.
“I clearly don’t understand what the issues are. I think that is more relevant to be ascertained from the BCCI. Nobody could tell (what the issue are). Not even my president is aware of what the issue is, what the wrongdoing is. So we are all in the dark as far as that is concerned,” he told ESPNcricinfo.
“The tour went on, and there have been attempts to get together. But I can’t tell you what the issue is that upsets them about myself,” Lorgat added. Lorgat had made a press statement that he will work on bettering the relations with the BCCI.
Asked how he intended to go about it, he said: “Well, we must wait. Time can heal things. I have even offered to apologise if I am told what I’d done wrong. If I think it’s wrong, I must apologise, that’d be the right thing to do. But until I am told, there is nothing I can do.”
In February last year, when the Big three — India, England and Australia — proposed to revamp the ICC, CSA along with Pakistan and Sri Lanka were against it, but later CSA president Chris Nenzani voted in favour of the proposal after a chat with BCCI president N Srinivasan.
Talking about the issue, Lorgat said: “There were several changes to the initial proposal. If you study the proposal that was initially floated and what was subsequently accepted, it was very different. When several of the initial proposals were removed and changed to the satisfaction of Mr Nenzani, that is when South Africa entered the debate.(PTI)
