The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) has asked the BCCI’s full-member associations to revert by March 1 with names of its current office-bearers and members of the governing body or managing committee or working committee.
The CoA advisory addressed to the full members said: “You are also called upon to obtain undertakings from your current office-bearers and members of your governing body/managing committee/working committee to the effect that they are not disqualified in terms of the criteria laid down and forward copies of the same to the Committee of Administrators. This should be done latest by 5 p.m. on 1st March 2017.”
Some officials have resigned from their posts, while some have ceased to function without actually resigning.
For example, the secretary of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA), Rajesh Patel, treasurer Dhiraj Jogani, and vice-president Kanhaiya Lal Contractor have stepped down without actually tendering their resignation in writing. They had been office-bearers of the GCA for a long time.
“I have been working as the secretary for the last nine years. We have to abide by the Supreme Court’s decision and so I am resigning,” Patel had said during the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Motera Stadium recently.
But others like the GCA president Amit Shah, vice-president Parimal Nathwani and joint secretary Jay Shah have not done so. “They will not be able to contest the next GCA elections. Shah and Nathwani have been GCA office-bearers from 2009 and 2010 and they go into the cooling-off period.
“They probably have a year or two left to complete nine years. Similarly Jay Shah also goes into the cooling-off period because he has completed his first three-year term.
“Elections were due in September 2016. And the automatically-disqualified office-bearers are taking decisions,” said a BCCI official following the developments at GCA.
The Sardar Patel Stadium at Motera has been razed, ₹67 crore has been advanced to a company for starting the redevelopment work and the association is either in the process or completed the process of a loan for ₹300 crore.
The redevelopment of the stadium, with a proposed capacity of more than one lakh, largely depends on Shah and Nathwani’s power to raise money and direct matters.
Response unlikely
Many associations did not respond to an earlier letter from the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, asking for details just as the CoA has done. It is understood that many associations are likely to keep quiet and not respond to the CoA advisory.
The CoA has also asked full members to furnish the compliance orders it has met with. It may be noted the Vidarbha and Tripura Cricket Associations have already adopted the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations.
