UPCA sets up panel to study Lodha committee recommendations

KANPUR: The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) on Friday set up a five-member panel to discuss the Lodha committee recommendations for reform in the Indian cricket board and its affiliated bodies.

Tahir Hasan, vice-president of the UPCA, has been made the chairman of the new panel. Its other members are Vijay Gupta, DS Chauhan, Rakesh Mishra and Javed Ahmed.

The decision was taken at the annual general meeting of the UPCA which as, expected, seems to be keen to toe the BCCI line on the issue. “We are waiting for guidance from the board,” UPCA ecretary Rajeev Shukla told HT after the AGM.

“The UPCA elections are due next year, so we aren’t in a hurry. The BCCI has convened a special general meeting later this month to consider and discuss the directives of the justice Lodha committee. Once we get the directives from the board, we will make the necessary changes here,” added Shukla. He also said that if required, the UPCA too would convene a special general meeting and follow the guidelines of the apex body. “We don’t want to be drawn into any legal hassle. That’s why we are waiting for the board’s directives on various issues related to reform, including the age cap for 70 plus office-bearers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Suhaib Ahmed, one of the senior-most directors of the UPCA, chose not to attend the Friday’s meeting.

Sources said Ahmed and a few others are aware of the Lodha committee recommendations’ impact in the future.

“I have not yet decided about my future in the UPCA, but I haven’t resigned,” Suhaib had told HT. .

The Lodha committee has recommended a 70-year age bar for cricket body office bearers. If this recommendation was accepted, some UPCA office bearers would be effected, the sources said. “I have stopped attending the UPCA meetings and I am happy that I have been serving the cricketing body for the last 50 years without any other interest,” he said.

There was no discussion on Suhaib’s absence in the AGM on Friday.