Lodha FAQs virtually rule out Sourav from BCCI's top job

There was not much to cheer for Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Sourav Ganguly because come June 2017, he will have to go for a compulsory 'Cooling off' of three years, having completed three years at the State association as secretary and president.

While Sourav Ganguly can be a BCCI president, it would only be for a few months if one interprets the Lodha Panel's answer properly.

It is end of the innings for many office-bearers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India as the Lodha Committee clarified the impact of its reforms in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) response posted on its website on Thursday.

In an emphatic message, the Panel said, “One who has been the office-bearer of a State association for nine years is disqualified from returning to the cricket administration, either at the BCCI or at any State association.”

Read:>Ganguly: 'I have not thought about anything'

The panel continued, “Similarly, one who has been an office-bearer at the State for five years and then at the BCCI for four years is also similarly disqualified.”

Effectively, a cumulative period of nine years in cricket administration would bring an end to the individual’s innings. Period.

The Panel also brought to an end the five-member selection committee norm. The Board CEO Rahul Johri informed Gagan Khoda and Jatin Paranjpe that their term stood terminated. The selection panel now comprises of Test players MSK Prasad, Devang Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh. The Lodha Committee had recommended only three members, all Test cricketers, to be named on the senior selection panel.

In an obvious reference to the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s move to appoint disqualified official Ajay Shirke as its representative, the Panel reiterated, “In keeping with the spirit of the Hon Supreme Court’s judgment, a disqualified office-bearer is no longer to be associated with cricket administration. He/she is disqualified from being a representative or nominee of the member association or the BCCI and cannot discharge any other role in or behalf of the association or the BCCI. He/she cannot function within the association in any patron orm advisory capacity nor be a member of a committee nor be a member of a committee or council.”

As far as election for member association, the ruling states, “If an election is held which is inconsistent with the committee’s report and the judgment of the Supreme Court, then the same will be treated as void and with no legal sanctity.” An election is to be supervised by an election officer as prescribed under the recommendations. “It would be prudent for such elections to be conducted under the guidance of the administrators to be appointed by the Hon Supreme Court,” said the Panel.

In a question related to the tenure availability for Sourav Ganguly, the response from the Panel read, “If at the time of the election, the existing office-bearer has not completed a period of three years, he is eligible to contest the election. However, he will not have a full term and will have to demit office immediately upon the continuous three-year period being completed.”

The FAQs response from the Panel sets to rest the ambitions of many veteran officials looking to cling on to the post or plot a possible comeback. There are moves in many associations to place dummy candidates in order to maintain their control over the administration but such moves would also come under the scrutiny of the Panel once the process of implementing the reforms is set in motion.

The administrators to be appointed on January 19 have been vested with the task of giving the game a clean and transparent administration and the key obviously lies in a uniform constitution to be followed by the Board and its affiliated units. The process, said a Lodha Committee insider, is going to be long drawn.