BCCI moves SC for full 3-year term for president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah

New Delhi, May 23: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has filed a plea before the Supreme Court, seeking a change in the board’s constitution. The change in BCCI’s constitution would allow the president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah to complete their full three-year terms without serving the necessary ‘cooling period’ as required by the Justice Lodha committee’s recommendations.

According to a news report by the Times of India, the application was filed by BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal. In the application, Dhumal stated that these changes were approved at the AGM on December 1 and was seeking leave of the SC, as per its August 9, 2018 order, to implement them by changing the constitution.

According to the current rules of BCCI constitution, approved by SC, a three-year cooling off period is compulsory for anyone who had served two terms in state cricket associations or at BCCI. This means, Ganguly and Shah will have to stay away from the board and its activities starting July and June respectively. Before the appointment as BCCI president, Ganguly was head of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) while Shah was at helm of Gujarat Cricket Association.

During the AGM, the members also discussed to scrap Committee of Administrators (CoA) prepared constitution that disqualified and person charged with a criminal offence from a BCCI member, The Business Standard reported.

The board said these changes were necessary for the smooth administration of cricket and to effectively utilise the administrative talent available in the three-tier district-state-national cricket management.

“The draft (constitution) was prepared by persons who did not have ground-level experience of functioning of this three-tier structure in which the transition of cricket administrators is stage-wise, which is in the larger interest of the game of cricket. Any provision which has a direct or an indirect effect of restricting persons with rich and varied experience, whereby they have acquired and strengthened organising capacity, finance generating capacity and administrative skills will be to the detriment of the game of cricket,” the BCCI said.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/sports/bcci-moves-to-sc-for-full-3-year-term-for-president-ganguly-secretary-shah-120052300430_1.html