Amicus Curiae sticks to most of Lodha reforms

NEW DELHI: In what could be termed as a blow to the senior BCCI officials, the amicus curiae Gopal Subramanium has kept most of the recommendations made by Justice RM Lodha Committee in the draft constitution of the cricket board.

The only major point, where the amicus suggested a change was reverting to the five-man selection panel from the current three-member committee. It also suggested a change in ‘Test Players Only’ clause to minimum 20 first-class matches. The five recommendations, which majority of BCCI office bearers found contentious were: one state-one vote, tenure of 18 years (9 plus 9), cooling off after every three years, age cap of 70 years, allocation of duties between officebearers and paid employees (Secretary and CEO). Almost all the affiliated units had these points in common but to their dismay, Subramanium in his suggestions with regards to the draft constitution submitted to the Supreme Court on October 27, has stuck to original recommendation. On ‘one state one vote’ issue, the amicus had suggested that Railways be considered as voting member among the institutional units considering their contribution in promotion of women’s cricket. However, the voter should be a former player and not an official of Railways. Services, Universities, National Cricket Club (NCC) and Cricket Club of India (CCI) will however not get back their voting rights. “While the members were open to inclusion of North Eastern states, we find it extremely unfair that Mumbai and Baroda lose their voting status. When we are supposed to develop cricket in North East, the NCC could have played a pivotal role.”