BCCI elections to be held on 22 October, announces CoA; Vinod Rai says democratically elected body should run cricket in India

New Delhi: The Committee of Administrators (CoA) on Tuesday said that the much-awaited elections of the BCCI will be held on 22 October. The CoA, which was appointed by the Supreme Court in January 2017 to oversee the sweeping reforms recommended by the Lodha panel, announced the elections date after due consultation with the apex court-appointed amicus curiae PS Narsimha. The Supreme Court had assigned Narsimha in March to mediate with various state associations which had 80 filed interim appeals. In the meeting attended by all three CoA members – chief Vinod Rai, Diana Edulji and Ravi Thodge – the deadline to hold state elections was set at 14 September. Rai said 30 state associations have been rendered compliant and the rest are in the process of amending their constitution as per the Lodha reforms. [caption id=“attachment_5302221” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image of BCCI. AFP[/caption] Asked about elections finally taking place in the BCCI, which has suffered from administrative crisis for more than two years, Rai said he was a happy man. “When I was appointed by the Honourable Supreme Court, I had said that my role will be of a night watchman and this night watchman has stayed for very long,” Rai told PTI in a lighter vein. “We (CoA) are happy because our job was very specific. It was mandated to make them (the state associations) accept the constitution (as per Lodha recommendations). They (associations) had difficulties which was mediated between us, amicus and the court. We are happy to hand it over them. “We sincerely believed a democratically elected body should run cricket in the country,” added the former CAG. Rai lauded amicus Narsimha’s role in dealing with the state associations. “We gave a lot of status reports (10 in all) to Supreme Court. Supreme Court heard all the associations, then amicus was appointed by the Supreme Court to hold mediations. “Amicus spent about 150 hours talking to all the state associations on clarifications which were sought. Ultimately, the state associations have come forward and accepted all the recommendations, about 30 odd have been rendered compliant.” The strength of the apex council could be increased for the state units but in the BCCI, it will be limited to nine members as proposed. “Of the main constitution only one concession has been recommended by the amicus in his report to SC and that was regarding the apex council. “The apex council in state associations was supposed to mirror BCCI’s (nine members). They had practical difficulties because cricket is run in the state itself. They have players and ground committee and other committees. They indicated their difficulty to amicus. “We jointly felt that we needed to increase this number and make it more flexible. Roughly it should be limited to 19 and in that three nominated members will also be there, 16 would be elected,” he added. The Supreme Court had, in 17 January, sacked BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke, and asked other office-bearers who don’t meet the qualifications set by the court to be on the board to demit office or stand disqualified.