BCCI state units likely to be allowed 19-member Apex Council despite BCCI’s previous nine-member rule
BCCI may change the rule for the state units and allow them to compose their apex council with 19 members, compared to the 9-member team of the BCCI. Most of the state associations demanded the same and Amicus Curiae PS Narsimha is expected to submit this to the Supreme Court on Thursday.
As per the Lodha Committee recommendations, formed in totality in 2017 before being partially modified in 2018, the BCCI apex council will have nine members in their apex council and that will comprise the president, vice president, secretary, joint secretary, treasurer, two players’ representative (male and female), CAG representative, one member from state unit. However, with most state units having different voter composition, they wanted a change to it and asked for a bigger pool to form the council.
In April’s meeting, Amicus Curiae PS Narsimha was understood to have learnt about the reservations and had discussions with Committee of Administrators (CoA) as well as the majority of the affiliated units so as to ensure that the contentious issue is now on the verge of being sorted.
“The learned Amicus has had discussions with Committee of Administrators (CoA) as well as the majority of the affiliated units. It seems at least 85 percent (30 out of 36) units which are fully compliant are on board that 19 is a good number for apex council of state units,” a senior BCCI official privy to state unit’s meeting with the Amicus told PTI.
“The CoA and the Amicus agree that states units are the ones promoting the game in the country. An association like DDCA which constitutes individual members has a different fabric compared to Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) which has institutional voting. So it couldn’t have been a 9 member Apex Council,” the official said.
One of the major associations to have a complaint regarding this was Karnataka State Cricket Association, who wanted their apex council to rise to 26 instead of nine. However, they eventually decided to settle on the middle-ground and agreed to the proposed 19, which means there will be 16 elected, two players’ representative and one CAG representative in the team.
While it is learnt that at least 30 out of 36 teams have been Lodha compliant, they have requested the Amicus to “speed up the election process” so as to form a democratically elected body.