The Supreme Court of India has given an approval to the new constitution of BCCI, based on the Lodha panel’s reforms to restructure the Indian cricketing body, but set aside some measures that would have completely modified cricket administration in the country.
Among the Lodha reforms that have not been accepted in BCCI’s new constitution are the one-state-one-vote policy and the cooling-off period for office bearers after one term. The cooling-off period will now be after two consecutive terms in office, and the removal of the one-state-one-vote policy means all the associations based in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat – Saurashtra, Vidarbha, Baroda, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Mumbai – will retain their full membership in the cricketing body.
The principle of the Lodha panel’s cooling-off period recommendation will still be implemented, but after two consecutive three-year terms at the Indian cricket board or state, or a combination of both. That gives an official a six-year run in office. Details about the age limit and tenure specifications for office bearers remain to be seen; the Lodha committee had suggested an age-cap of 70 and a tenure limit of nine years at the BCCI or state associations.
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The Lodha Committee had also recommended that the other boards with no state entity such as the Railways Sports Promotion Board, Services Sports Council Board, Association of Indian Universities, National Cricket Club (Kolkata) and Cricket Club of India not have full membership in the BCCI. However, the SC has allowed Services, Railways and the Association of Indian Universities to be the Full Members and retain their vote.
Restoring the votes of Mumbai and Saurashtra, as well as the government associations, like the Railways, the Services and the Association of Universities, as the Court has done while approving a new BCCI constitution, diluted the condition regarding “government servants,” giving bureaucrats and servicemen involved in these associations voting powers.
The Supreme Court’s three-judge bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, in its order, granted four weeks time to register the new modified constitution of BCCI with the Tamil Nadu Registrar of Societies. The court also asked the state cricket associations to adopt the BCCI constitution within 30 days of the order and intimate the SC-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA). It further warned state cricket associations that non-compliance to the order will invite actions.
