Board seeks SC nod to relax tenure cap BCCI go-ahead to more pink-ball Tests in future
BCCI eyes extended stint for president Ganguly and secretary Shah, who will also attend ICC meet
MUMBAI:THE Sourav Ganguly-led Board Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), in its first meeting after assuming office, took a host of decisions but the fate of most of them will depend on the Supreme Court. The BCCI is looking to mellow down the rule on coolingoff period of its office bearers in the new constitution and agreed to a few amendments at its Annual General Meeting on Sunday.
While the members were in principle happy to bring in the amendments, some felt, it would not be legally prudent to pass a resolution without getting a hearing from the court.
The move is aimed at helping president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah and joint-secretary Jayesh George to serve their full three-year tenures.
As per the constitution, the office bearers have to go on a cooling-off period after a six-year stint in either the state or BCCI administration and there is less than a year remaining for Ganguly and Shah.
“With regards to the amendments, the thought is that for the (rules) that are not applicable, we will appeal for clarification. We have seen orders have been amended in the past. We want to respectfully bring (those) to the notice of the court. It’s a prayer,” Ganguly said after the meeting.
The BCCI also does not want the court’s involvement in future decisions on constitutional amendments and has proposed that a three-fourth majority at the AGM should be enough to take a final call.
The officials believe it is not practical to take the Supreme Court’s approval for every amendment, which is a must as per the existing BCCI constitution.
Both Ganguly and treasurer Arun Dhumal, however, maintained that the BCCI was not against the reforms. “There were some (media) reports that BCCI wants sweeping changes. If you go through (amendments proposed) we are only trying to get some clarifications that will show us a way forward,” Dhumal said.
“There are only certain things we have sought clarifications on. Six (amendments proposed) are very few and does not stop the running of the board,” said Ganguly.
ICC REPRESENTATIVE
The AGM has selected secretary Shah to be BCCI’S representative to Chief Executives Committee meetings at the International Cricket Council (ICC). Ganguly said the appointment of the BCCI representative at ICC’S general body would be made “in a couple of days”.
This could mean that the BCCI maybe keeping the position vacant for N Srinivasan for the time being, pending a favourable hearing from the Supreme Court, next week.
CAC AND SELECTORS
One thing which became clear from the AGM was that most of the cricketing decisions will be taken by Ganguly himself. The BCCI’S AGM authorised by the constitution to select the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), entrusted the task to the office bearers, saying “with a former India captain at the helm, it only makes sense that cricketing appointments are best left to him”.
“We will appoint the CAC in seven to ten days,” Ganguly said. The BCCI has been unable to find three suitable candidates for CAC with a number of former cricketers unwilling to take up the honorary post under stringent conflict of interest guidelines.
“We met the ombudsman DK Jain yesterday. We needed to get proper clarity on what is conflict of interest and what is not. We don’t want to appoint someone and he then gets cancelled like it has happened in the past,” Ganguly said.
Ganguly was clear that “(VVS) Laxman and Sachin (Tendulkar) may not even want to come on board” indicating that the new CAC may not be a star-studded one. Ganguly said there would be a new chairman of selectors soon. “Those whose tenure is over is over,” he said. MSK Prasad and Gagan Khoda were appointed in 2015 and their four-year tenure is over.
Former chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar, meanwhile, has emerged as a possible contender from West Zone and if the CAC agrees, he could be a strong candidate for the chairman of selectors’ post.
During Vengsarkar’s first stint as chief selector, Ganguly had made a comeback for the South Africa tour in 2006-07.
PLAYER APPROACHED
Following multiple arrests in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL), Ganguly said that there were integrity issues with state T20 leagues. Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) president Roger Binny was also summoned for a meeting with the BCCI officials.
“We have dealt with KPL. It’s on hold. For Saurashtra and Mumbai, there have been no complaints, but there have been complaints with TNPL. We will put systems in place,” Ganguly said, adding: “It’s hard to stop tournaments. Even in Mushtaq Ali Trophy, a player was approached. Some cases have gone to the next level. We are dealing with it. We will try to make it stronger.”
We will form CAC, we met (Ombudsman) DK Jain yesterday. VVS and I were cleared, we need to get clarity on what is conflict and what is not.
MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at its Annual General Meeting (AGM), decided other state associations will also be hosting pink-ball Tests following the warm response at Eden Gardens last month. This comes after India captain had said that day-night Tests can ‘be a one-off thing’. “It should not, in my opinion, become a regular scenario,” Kohli had said after the Eden Test finished in less than three days. The BCCI however has taken a different path. “Yes, we got that passed in the governing body. Different associations will host the matches,” said BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.
“Credit should be given to (treasurer) Arun Dhumal and (secretary) Jay Shah also, and the Apex Council members for the pink-ball Test. Within three days (after assuming office) we had a meeting and told them this (daynight Test) has to happen. I got emails within a minute saying we’ll go ahead with it. And you saw the success. Star Sports sent us a feedback that the eyeballs were three times than it’s actually in a Test match. And that too India weren’t playing the strongest team in the world. Imagine playing against England, Australia and South Africa. I think it’s going to be remarkable,” he said.
While the Test made for good viewing, there remain doubts within the team. The main grouse is spinners are not as effective after the ball gets wet once the dew sets in. The other is the extra movement generated during twilight due to the temperature dropping and the extra grass on the pitches needed to help maintain the colour of the ball. India now have a battery of top fast bowlers comparable to Australia and England, but playing the moving ball remains a weakness.
It is for this reason India declined to play a day-night Test in Adelaide on their last tour of Australia. And if India play pinkball Tests at home, they will find it tough to say no to the same abroad. “We’ll deal as per the request of foreign boards. But in India it’ll happen,” said Ganguly when asked if India are ready to play day-night Tests abroad.
Among other notable decisions, there was windfall for state associations in the form of increase in subsidy for infrastructure development and hosting fees from IPL franchises. Under the Committee of Administrators (COA), for the last three years, the state associations’ payments were blocked pending implementation of reforms put in place by the Lodha committee.
The funding for infrastructure development has been increased from ~60 crore to ~100 crore, and the hosting fee of each match has been increased from ~60 lakh to ~1 crore. This will come as a timely boost for associations who are building new stadiums and supporting infrastructure. The Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) is building a massive state-of-theart stadium at Motera with a capacity of more than a lakh. Saurashtra too has plans of making an indoor stadium. States in the northeast have to build their entire setup from scratch.
Punjab is also building a new stadium and looking to take cricket out of the old stadium at Mohali. “States also have lot of expenses. To maintain Eden Gardens, we spend about ~5 to 6 crore a year. And I’m sure it’s the same with Himachal, Mumbai, Bangalore. They’re massive stadiums, they’re very expensive,” said Ganguly. The contract-system for state players will also increase the burden on associations. “It (contracts for players) will be through state associations only.
Tenures are finished. You cannot go beyond tenure. They have done a good job. We will fix a term for selectors and it is not right to appoint selectors every year.
ON TENURE OF SELECTORS