On January 2, the Supreme Court of India came out with an order for the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) office-bearers. Since then there has been a lot of confusion over the tenure of both eligible and ineligible officers.
The order established a cumulative tenure of 9 years for the BCCI officers. It is in contrast to the order passed on July 18, 2016 which had stated a cumulative tenure of 9 plus 9 years for all office-bearers (9 years in BCCI and 9 in respective state association).
Today, January 20, 2017, the Supreme Court will once gain hear the matter and then finally a bench will be taking a decision as to which order should be referred to hereafter.
A new set of administrators will also be appointed today. These administrators will run BCCI henceforth until fresh elections are held.
There have been speculations about the composition of this administrative panel. A few names that have come forward are Mukul Mudgal, former judge of the Delhi High Court; Gopal Krishna Pillai, former bureaucrat; Vinod Rai, ex-CAG and Mohinder Amarnath, former Indian cricket team all-rounder.
Apart from Mudgal all other names were suggested to Supreme Court by court-appointed amicus curiae and senior counsel Gopal Subramanium and were supported by Justice RM Lodha Committee. Including Mudgal in the administrative panel will enable BCCI to have a legal perspective in all its affairs.
A set of FAQs posted by the Lodha Committee state that neither the association nor the board can nominate an ineligible office-bearer to BCCI or any other meeting. This has not went down well with a few past office-bearers, now rendered ineligible. It is likely that they will be asking for an explanation from the court today.
On the other hand, the new set of administrators have a mammoth task in front of them. First and foremost, they will have to call a general body meeting of BCCI members to see if they will get 23rd’s majority in order to implement the Lodha Committee recommendations.
The new administrators will also have to work with CEO of the board, Rahul Johri, for a successful IPL edition. The dates were announced on Thursday, April 5 to May 21, but work regarding contracts is still pending.
Added to that, the jersey rights of Indian cricket team are also up for renewal and the new set of administrators will have to ensure that they finish the work before 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.
