BCCI office-bearers, state officials set to face the axe
MUMBAI: The Committee of Administrators (CoA) has decided to wield the axe on the three principal office-bearers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) — acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry. It is learnt the decision was taken during CoA’s meeting held in Mumbai on Tuesday.
On March 5, the CoA will be filing its status report to the Supreme Court, in which it will inform the apex court that the three acting office-bearers have been removed, well-placed sources said.
The top state officials like Sourav Ganguly (president of Cricket Association of Bengal), Amit Shah (president of Gujarat Cricket Association) and Jay Shah (honorary secretary, GCA) could also face ouster for defying tenure and cooling off caps.
The CoA has decided to remove the trio from their BCCI posts as all of them have cumulatively completed three years as office-bearers — Khanna as the vice-president and acting president, Anirudh as treasurer and Amitabh as joint secretary and now acting secretary. Also, CoA’s working relationship with the office-bearers has of late deteriorated.
The latest were the differences over plans to host a day-night Test without taking the CoA into confidence. There is no mutual trust between the two parties.
The three will meet the same fate as Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke, who were removed from their posts of the BCCI president and secretary, respectively, through an order of apex court on January 2, 2017.
Earlier, in August 2017, in their fifth status report that was submitted to the Supreme Court, the CoA had recommended the removal of the top three BCCI office-bearers, stating that their conduct was unfit and that they weren’t in a position to make good on their undertakings of implementing the Lodha reforms.
“The current office-bearers of the BCCI have demonstrated scant regard for the directions issued by the Committee of Administrators and continue to flout the same with impunity,” the fifth status report read. It complained that the actions of the constituent members of the BCCI constituted “wilful disobedience” and demonstrated “overall resistance” to the Supreme Court’s order.
Also, in case of state associations which have not agreed to adopt the Lodha committee recommendations, having yet to submit the affidavits, their principal officials will have to go. It means, Gujarat Cricket Association’s Amit Shah and Jay Shah will be out due to the cooling off period after three years.
The sword is likely to fall on Ganguly, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president, as well.