The Annual General Meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be held in Mumbai on October 18.
On Thursday evening, the BCCI secretary Jay Shah notified the state units that the elections for the position of the office-bearers - the president, vice-president, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer - will be held on that day.
Even though the latest Supreme Court ruling allows the current office-bearers to continue for another term, there seems to be some suspense over whether Sourav Ganguly will continue as the president for another term. There are speculations that Jay Shah could emerge as the front-runner for the role, while Ganguly might move to the International Cricket Council. However, neither Ganguly nor Shah have spoken on the issue yet.
The AGM will appoint the BCCI representative to the ICC. Currently, both president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah are the nominated representatives to the ICC.
Among other agendas of the meeting, appointment of Ombudsman and Ethics officer, appointment of Cricket Committee and Standing Committee and appointment of Umpires Committee are to be ratified.
Women’s IPL
As reported earlier by Sportstar, the Annual General Meeting will also discuss the Women’s IPL. According to one of the pointers in the notification, which Sportstar, has seen ‘there will be updates’ on the tournament.
The women’s IPL has been in the pipeline for a while and the BCCI has earmarked the February-March window for the inaugural edition, which could be a six team affair.
A couple of days ago, the BCCI president Ganguly informed the state units that the Board plans to start Women’s IPL early next year. In an email to state units, Ganguly wrote, “The BCCI is currently working in the much-awaited women’s IPL. We are expecting to start the first season early next year.”
Once it is approved in the Annual General Meeting, the BCCI will formalise the franchises and start the tender process for media rights. Sportstar understands that the Board has informally spoken to a few existing IPL franchises and it is believed that if they are keen on owning teams, first preference will be given to them.
Tax issues
The member units will also be updated on the ICC and ‘ICC tax matters’. With India set to host the World Cup next year, the ICC is expecting tax relief for the tournament, and the BCCI top brass is already in conversation with the union ministry on the issue.
Apart from these, the members will be updated on the National Cricket Academy related matters and also about the infrastructure development initiatives undertaken by the BCCI in the North-Eastern region. India’s Future Tours Programme will also be discussed in the meeting, along with an update on the revised infrastructure Subsidy Policy.
West zone selector issue
Even though the agenda does not specify it, one of the major points will be to fill up a vacant post of a senior national selector from the West zone.
The four members of the committee, headed by Chetan Sharma, are set to get an extension. However, there could be some tweaks to the junior men’s selection committee.
In February this year, Abey Kuruvilla’s tenure as the national selector from the west zone ended, but since then, the BCCI hasn’t appointed a new selector from the west zone, despite the Board top brass time and again saying that the “process will begin soon...”
As per the Board’s constitution, no person can stay on for more than five years as a member of any cricket committee. Kuruvilla had earlier served as chairman of the junior selection committee for four years, and after his tenure as a national selector ended, he was hired as the BCCI’s general manager (game development).
According to the Board’s constitution, the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) needs to conduct the interviews before appointing the national selectors. Since October last year, the CAC has been short of a member as its head Madan Lal had to step down after he turned 70. In his absence, RP Singh and Sulakshana Naik had to conduct the interviews to appoint Rahul Dravid as the head coach last year.
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