IOA standoff: Usha sticks to her stand

New Delhi: Indian Olympic Association president PT Usha has written to the International Olympic Committee top official who was present online during the executive committee meeting on Thursday, saying the “purported minutes of meeting jointly signed by the 10 EC members is null and void.”
Usha, who chaired the meeting, said the minutes of the meeting sent by her should be considered. The EC members did not ratify the appointment of CEO Raghuram Iyer and wanted the process to start afresh. Ratification of CEO’s appointment was the only agenda of the emergency meeting.
The meeting of EC members continued after Usha left. The minutes signed by EC members said after the ratification was not approved, “the president left the meeting abruptly while not returning for a long while.”
In absence of Usha, EC decided that the “acting CEO joint secretary Kalyan Chaubey shall continue to discharge the duties as per the provisions laid out in the constitution.”
“As you would agree I had to conclude the meeting as the Executive Committee members were not open to discussion. In this regard, my earlier email sent at 1800 hr refers and the purported Minutes of Meeting jointly signed by the 10 EC members is null and void,” Usha wrote to IOC Director Jerome Poivey, NOC Relations Department, who joined the meeting online.
Chaubey was the acting CEO after the IOA elections in December 2022. The appointment of CEO kept getting delayed and the IOC had to issue several reminders and even stern warning before Iyer was chosen after a year. As per the IOA constitution, if the post of CEO is vacated for any reason, the joint secretary shall function as the CEO until a CEO is appointed within 60 days.
The EC members have mentioned in the minutes that the process of appointing a new CEO would be completed in two months. However, it will be easier said than done. The process involves advertising for the position and finding the right candidate as per the required criteria.
Also, the constitution says that a CEO shall be proposed by a nomination committee comprising the President (Usha), chairman of the Athletes Commission (MC Mary Kom) and one IOC member from India (Nita Ambani).
“The nomination committee shall follow the due process of selection, including advertising the position, prior to the
nomination of the CEO to the Executive Council.”
“The CEO must be a person who is a management professional with management experience of at least 10 (ten) years as the CEO of a company/entity with a turnover of at least rupees 25 crores,” as per the IOA constitution.
IOA had to advertise for the position twice after they failed to receive applications fulfilling all the criteria.
Iyer’s name was finalised after the second round of advertisement since there was not much interest the first time IOA had invited for applications. During the IOC Session in Mumbai, IOC did some tough talking with IOA asking them to fill the post. IOA had to advertise for the post again and finally Iyer, who served as CEO of Indian Premier League teams Rajasthan Royals, Lucknow Super Giants among others, was appointed by the nomination committee in January — a year after IOA’s election.