Kapil Dev

Kapil Dev has been “shocked and shaken” by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)-authored call to remove Sir Clive Lloyd as chairman of the cricket committee of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The BCCI, known to flex its muscles every now and then, has been offended by his comments on the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL).

For the BCCI, the ICL is a touchy issue and, in the past, hasn’t been amused that its relationship (or the lack of it) with the Zee-backed show has been on the ICC’s agenda.

Speaking at a promotional event in Mumbai this week, Sir Clive hoped the ICL and the officially-sanctioned Indian Premier League would co-exist and that a dialogue would do no harm.

Sir Clive was, of course, not there as chairman of a key committee of the ICC. But, then, that hasn’t stopped the BCCI from making such an issue.

“I’ve been so shocked and shaken... Can’t Lloyd speak his mind? Have people forgotten his stature? Does he need anybody’s permission to say anything as an elder statesman of the game? I just can’t believe that the BCCI has moved the ICC,” Kapil, who heads the ICL board, told The Telegraph.

Both Sir Clive and Kapil, incidentally, are World Cup-winning captains.

Speaking on Saturday, he added: “If the ICC does act then, henceforth, it should appoint only yes-men to all positions... Or get people who’ll always stand up and say ‘yes boss’... Wahi karna chahiye.”

Kapil, who too was present at that promotional, said he wouldn’t have objected had Sir Clive been critical of the ICL. “As an individual, and a cricketing giant at that, Lloyd has the right to say what he wants... Nobody controls him and I certainly wouldn’t have questioned him if, for example, he’d been critical of the ICL.”

The ICC, meanwhile, is not saying anything beyond confirming that an “email had been received from the BCCI.”