In a fresh eruption of dissent in the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Friday, Sharad Pawar resigned from its Marketing Committee, a move which could destabilise the recent uneasy truce worked out among rival factions over the membership of the high-powered committee that handles television rights and other marketing matters.
There were conflicting reports on why Pawar, president of the Mumbai Cricket Association, resigned.
While an MCA source said Pawar resigned as he could not devote time in view of the earthquake relief work, a key dissident faction leader, Raj Singh Dungarpur, claimed that the Maratha strongman quit because the BCCI accounts were not in order.
"Mr Pawar has resigned from the BCCI marketing committee and has sent a letter to this effect. He has said in the letter that because of his busy schedule in the government's disaster management cell he would not be able to devote time to the committee's matters," the source said.
Dungarpur said Pawar and Srinivasan chose to quit as they were not shown all the papers and because of a lack of transparency in the functioning of the committee.
A top Board official in Kolkata said he had heard about the resignations, which has been sent to the BCCI secretary's office in Thiruvananthapuram.
"I have heard about the resignations but I cannot comment at the moment," he said.
Pawar was not in the orignal Marketing Committee of the BCCI but was inducted into the high-profile panel at the last AGM of the Board, in Kolkata, which was adjourned last month.
Pawar would, thus, not be attending the committee's sitting, in Mumbai on Sunday, to be chaired by Board president Ranbir Singh Mahendra.
The committee is expected to open the sealed technical bids received by it for the telecast rights for the next fours years, but has been directed by the Delhi high court not to disclose the outcome of the meeting following the filing of a petition on the telecast rights issue.
The BCCI was told to inform the outcome to the court on October 19, when the matter would come up for further hearing.
Srinivasan is currently in Geneva on a private visit and will return only on October 17, which means he will also miss the Commitee's meeting on Sunday.