Soon after filing his nomination for the post of president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Sourav Ganguly described the last three years in the sport’s ruling body as “emergency-like”.
The CoA’s overall control was a constant source of irritation, and the members took charge of affairs through the democratic process on October 23.
Ganguly, however, had given no hint of going for the jugular in his team’s readiness to move amendments to the BCCI constitution that the CoA had drafted and the Supreme Court accepted on August 9, 2018.
Jay Shah, the new BCCI secretary, says it is not mandatory for the BCCI to approach the Supreme Court and seek approval for amendments adopted at general meetings.
Among amendments to be discussed at its annual general meeting in Mumbai on December 1 will be the need to modify the cooling-off period clauses, making them applicable only to the president and secretary.
Disqualification clause
Removing the disqualification clause for nominating a person to the International Cricket Council and similar organisations and, most importantly, vesting decision-making powers with the Apex Council and secretary are other changes proposed.
The Apex Council, headed by Ganguly and Shah, seems inclined to nominate former BCCI president and ICC chairman N. Srinivasan as a director on the ICC Board.
The ICC has considerably changed the eligibility rules to become a member-director and may have conveyed the same to Ganguly and Shah.
The BCCI members have discussed each Lodha committee-recommended clause and opposed a number of them as well as the board’s claim on the percentage of money it should receive from the ICC’s revenue for the 2016-2023 cycle.
There should not be any difficulty for the amendments to go through with or without modifications, but the moot point is how the Supreme Court will respond to the amendments.
Should they be accepted, a sports bill amenable to sports federations may not be necessary to offset the tenure rules.
