Rai welcomes Supreme Court order on Lodha reforms

Two terms before cooling off period for BCCI office-bearers

The Committee of Administrators chief Vinod Rai yesterday welcomed the Supreme Court order on mandatory cooling off period for BCCI office-bearers after two consecutive terms and for putting a roadmap in place for the Board’s elections.

The original Lodha Committee reforms suggested only one term of three years before mandatory cooling off but today’s order allows office-bearers two consecutive terms before the mandatory cooling off.

The new judgement effectively means that current acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and acting treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhry can contest for another term.

“This is an excellent order by the Honourable Court. I have absolutely no problem with office-bearers having two consecutive terms. Even I had originally wanted a sixyear term before cooling off period but couldn’t get consensus,” Rai told PTI on what is being seen as the most significant aspect of today’s order.

Rai said another positive to come out today is the timeline set by the apex court for the adoption of the approved BCCI constitution, which will also pave the way for the Board’s elections provided there is 100 per cent compliance by the state associations.

The state units have been today warned by the SC to either comply or face action.

“Now we finally have a roadmap in place which will lead to adoption of the new constitution and subsequently elections. Now there is a time-line in place,” Rai said.

He also expressed satisfaction that all the original members have retained their voting rights.