The R.M. Lodha Committee’s cleansing of the ‘tainted’ BCCI officials continues unabated.
On Thursday, the committee clarified that not only BCCI president Anurag Thakur and Secretary Ajay Shirke have been disqualified, but also an entire game of powerful BCCI state officials is now over. Some of these powerful state honchos, who have been stripped off their posts, include Anirudh Chaudhry (BCCI treasurer, Haryana secretary), Amitabh Choudry(Jharkhand president), N Srinivasan(former BCCI president, TNCA chief), Niranjan Shah (BCCI and Saurashtra Cricket boss) and Rajeev Shukla (UP cricket chief). It must be mentioned here that Sharad Pawar had stepped down as president of the Maharashtra Cricket a few days ago.
Apart from this, Thakur’s and Shirke’s tenure at the helm of their respective boards, the Himachal Cricket and Mumbai Cricket also stand annulled.
All the above mentioned officials tenure stand terminated as a result of the second part of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) which clearly stipulate that office bearers, who have completed nine years or have attained 70 years, stand ineligible to rule any BCCI or BCCI state association. This clause also bars these officials from attending any state/BCCI or ICC meeting representing the cricket board.
«In keeping with the spirit of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgement, a disqualified office bearer is no longer to be associated with cricket administration. He/she is disqualified from being a representative or nominee of the member association or the BCCI and cannot discharge any other role in or behalf of the association or the BCCI,” reiterated the FAQs.
The Lodha Committee also clarified that the post of an assistant secretary will be deemed as an office-bearer’s post. “The committee also reiterated its stringent law of a compulsory ‹cooling off’ period of three years after three years in office stands.”
This clause applies to Sourav Ganguly, the current Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) President. It is learnt that Sourav will go into the cooling period after his current stint ends in July
A BCCI official pointed out that the recommendations made by Lodha Committee will increase the animosity between the Committee and BCCI. “As a result of these clarifications, the stripped BCCI state officials are going to unite. They have been enjoying privileges for years and I am sure they will do their best to resist the Lodha committee’s recommendations,” said the official.
It is also learnt that the bosses of the BCCI’s state, whose posts have ceased to exist, have come together in a bid to challenge the recommendations. “Some of the removed bosses are now looking at the legal options to challenge the Lodha recommendations. They have been enjoying a lot of privileges and are not going to give it up without a fight,” said a BCCI state official.
HC refuses to stay HCA elections
Meanwhile in another development, the Hyderabad High Court refused to stay the elections of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) scheduled to be held on January 17.
The court, however, directed that the results should not be announced till further orders. It adjourned the final hearing of the case to January 18. The court was hearing a petition, filed by some officials of HCA, challenging the orders of a lower court for conducting the polls on January 17.
The petitioner contended that the entire election process is flawed as the Supreme Court, in its judgment, had stated that the election process should be conducted by an election officer who is a retired central or state election commissioner.
A lower court had last month directed HCA to hold the elections to the apex council and appointed advocate K. Rajeev Reddy as commissioner for conducting the elections.
The last date for filing of nominations for the six posts was January 10 and on the last day, former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin filed his nomination for the post of HCA president. However, uncertainty prevails over whether he will be allowed to contest as the BCCI has not officially lifted the ban on him, which they imposed in 2000 following match-fixing allegations. The Andhra Pradesh High Court, however, had declared the ban on Azhar as illegal in 2012.