The Board of Control for Cricket in India claimed on Sunday that the appointment of its president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, as its patron-in-chief is in accordance with the rules laid down in its constitution since its inception.
Since the inception of the BCCI, the Board's constitution had the provision to appoint patrons or a patron-in-chief, BCCI vice-president Kamal Morarka told reporters in Chennai, in the wake of the
Bhopal civil court order that the BCCI should not act in defiance of its rules.
"Dalmiya will be our first patron-in-chief although the provision to appoint patrons or a patron-in-chief has been there in the constitution for the last 75 years," Morarka said after Dalmiya was appointed as the patron-in-chief by the special general body meeting of the BCCI in Chennai.
"The BCCI constitution says that the general body can appoint a patron-in-chief," he added, in an apparent reference to the court order directing the BCCI not to take any decision vis-a-vis patron-in-chief in defiance to its rules.
Moraraka clarified that the court had not restrained the BCCI from appointing Dalmiya as the patron-in-chief but merely directed it not to violate its rules.
"The court has not restrained us. We considered the order (before appointing Dalmiya to the post)," he said.
He also said the role of the patron-in-chief and whether he should attend ICC meetings would be discussed at the Annual General Body meeting of the BCCI in Kolkata on September 29-30.