Vinod Rai, who was instrumental in implementing the Supreme Court-enforced reforms in the Board of Control for Cricket in India in his capacity as the Committee of Administrators chief, has no issues with BCCI’s proposal to dilute some of the clauses if Supreme Court is convinced about the amendments.
The elected BCCI executive has proposed key amendments to the “cooling off period” and the “age and tenure” clauses, which if implemented will enable president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah to complete full three-year terms in their respective offices. Another proposed amendment to allow a person who has attained 70 years age to be a member in a “governing council” will ensure an active role for the former BCCI president N Srinivasan’, the former BCCI president and an ex-chairman in the International Cricket Council.
The proposed amendments will also vest more powers in the BCCI office-bearers, while cutting the wings of the professional management staff including the Chief Executive Officer.
Read: Lodha Committee secretary ridicules proposed amendments in BCCI constitution
Rai has no “personal opinion” on the issue, except for saying that the BCCI will have to convince the Supreme Court that some of the amendments implemented by the Supreme Court were not practical. “I have also read that there are certain practical difficulties in implementing that cooling-off. And if the cooling-off is implemented, experienced people will not be available etc. It’s for the BCCI to decide and for the SC to take a view on it. For whatever reasons, the SC decided what it decided (amendments to the BCCI the constitution). Now, it’s for the BCCI to convince the SC that ‘look, it’s impractical’. I have no view on it. If they want me to change it and implement something, whatever the SC says I will still implement the same,” former CoA chairman Rai has told Outlook.
“Before we joined (on January 30, 2017), the SC had, in 2016, (had) given its verdict and we had no flexibility in it. We had to implement the mandate of the SC. And we did that. Finally, the SC ordered, on the basis of our status reports etc., the final constitution on August 16, 2018, and we had to implement that constitution. So, my approach to it was totally focussed, totally clinical.
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“Now, if they (BCCI office-bearers) want to change it, it is their free will. Now, it is between the AGM and the Supreme Court. It’s because what they are seeking to change is nothing what the CoA had ordained, if I may say so, or the Lodha Committee. What they are seeking to change is the direction given by the SC. I have no views either side.”
The proposed amendments are part of the agenda for the BCCI AGM on December 1, first in more than three year since the Supreme Court-appointed CoA were running the board.
The BCCI is expected to file an application in the Supreme Court for a nod during the other matters listed for hearing on November 27 and 28.
Also read: BCCI AGM on Dec. 1; key amendment to ensure 3-year term for Ganguly, Shah
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