Srinivasan and Thakur share space as ‘BCCI officials’ stick together

THE INFORMAL meeting of the ousted/disqualified office-bearers of the BCCI and state associations in Bangalore on Saturday turned out to be a show of unity. As reported by this paper, former ICC and BCCI chief N Srinivasan played the lead, with members from 24 state bodies attending. Three government institutions - Railways, Universities and Services - along with Vidarbha, Delhi and National Cricket Club were in the list of absentees. Srinivasan called this meeting in the wake of the Supreme Court’s January 2 order that removed Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke from their posts of the BCCI president and secretary respectively for noncompliance.

Both Thakur and Shirke attended Saturday’s meeting. Administrative veterans like Niranjan Shah were also present. Interestingly, Arshad Ayub and Shivlal Yadav, too, turned up despite the fact that the Hyderabad Cricket Association has accepted the Lodha reforms in toto. Tripura, another state unit to accept the overhaul, showed up as well.

“We just wanted to see if we were united. It was an informal meeting, but given that Mr Srinivasan conducted the show, we would decide our future course of action under his guidance. First, we will wait for the apex court’s January 19 directives,” a former office-bearer of a state association told this paper.

Another official said that one of the plans they are deliberating is non-co-operation of state units with regard to Lodha committee. However, it’s not clear what steps the existing state units might take in the coming days.

The Supreme Court is likely to name a panel of administrators on January 19 to oversee the functioning of the BCCI and implement the Lodha reforms. By its January 2 and 3 orders it has disqualified almost all cricket board office-bearers.

The order says: “All the office bearers of Bcciandofitsaffiliatedstateassociationswho fail to meet the norms recommended by the Committee and accepted by this Court, shall forthwith demit and cease to hold office.”

As per the Lodha Committee recommendations accepted by the court, “A person shall be disqualified from being an Office Bearer if he or she : (a) Is not a citizen of India; (b) Has attained the age of 70 years; (c) Is declared to be insolvent, or of unsound mind; (d) Is a Minister or government servant; (e)holds any office or post in a sports or athletic association or federation apart from cricket; (f) Has been an Office Bearer of the BCCI for a cumulative period of 9 years; (g) Has been charged by a Court of Law for having committed any criminal offence.”

A story was doing the rounds that the ousted members were planning a breakaway organisation. But a former BCCI official ruled that out at present. “We had a gettogether in Bangalore today. So many cricket administrators selflessly served Indian cricket for so many years. Their contributions needed to be acknowledged,” he said.

Asked if a curative petition against the latest orders is an option, he said: “I don’t think so, although theoretically it’s still an option. But who will file it? We are no longer the BCCI and cannot comment anything on behalf of the board.”

Khoda, Paranjpe have time

Meanwhile, senior national selectors Gagan Khoda and Jatin Paranjpe can continue until the BCCI constitution is amended, a Lodha Committee official confirmed. “They will go after the recommendations are implemented. New constitution will be adopted and till then they can continue,” said the official. As per the Lodha Committee recommendations, Khoda and Paranjpe become ineligible as they never played Test cricket.

File Formee BCCI chief N Srinivasan.