Kolkata: The BCCI on Tuesday formed a seven-member committee and named Rajeev Shukla as it’s chairman who would ensure that the panel works for the appropriate implementation of the reforms suggested by the Lodha Committee.
BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary would be the convener of the committee which also includes treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry alongside former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly (Bengal), Naba Bhattacharjee (Meghalaya), Jay Shah (Gujarat), and T.C Matthew (Kerala).
The formation of this seven member panel was decided at the SGM of the BCCI on Monday which would make sure that the jugdements of the Supreme Court was implemented in the best possible manner and in quick time.
A BCCI statement says that the committee would come up with a report by the 10th of July , “in view of the fact that the next date of hearing in the matter is fixed for July 14.” The same would then be put forward in front of the General Body. This also means that there could be another SGM of the BCCI between July 10 and 14.
C.K Khanna, the acting president of the board would have to be regularly notified about the discussions of the committee and the report must be submitted to him for him to present it to the General Body.
Issues like the one-state-one-member-one-vote, the cooling off period for every three years after each term, the age limit of 70 years for board officials, the nine-year tenure restriction rule and the reinstatement of the five member selection panel instead of the three-member system would be dealt with by the seven-member committee.
This move by the BCCI to form this committee is in a way the first in a year of the judgements given by the Supreme Court. A group of people within the board wanted this committee to be chaired by acting president CK Khanna and also wanted to include Odisha’s Ranjib Biswal in the scheme of things. Both Biswal and Khanna are close to former president N Srinivasan. But the BCCI finally decided to opt for Rajeev Shukla who is an experienced politician and who gets along pretty well with the members within the board.
The inclusion of Jay Shah in the committee also hints at the fact that his father, Amit Shah, who is the president of the BJP as well as the head of the Gujarat Cricket Association would have his say in the functioning of the same. It was also revealed that the committee was only formed after Amit Shah made clear his wishes of forming a smaller group through the SGM to his son.
CoA to meet on July 1
To take a note of all these developments over the past two days, the Committee of Administrators would have a meeting on July 1 where it would also interpret and analyse as to whether this move is a serious attempt at implementing the Lodha reforms or is just delaying the same.