BCCI adjourns SGM, misses deadline

Beleaguered BCCI adjourned its crucial Special General Meeting here on Friday as some of the BCCI’s member units had not come to the meeting with proper letter of authorisation. The meeting will be now held on Saturday.

“The authorisation letters of the representatives from various state associations have not reached, so they have been given one day’s time to get the letters from their respective state associations,” a BCCI official said.

BCCI was set to amend BCCI MoA, and Rules and Regulations and amend constitutions of State Associations but missed the first deadline of September 30 to implement Lodha Committee recommendations on sweeping administrative reforms passed by Supreme Court on July 18. “This is a matter that concerns the Supreme Court, so we wanted to do everything in proper fashion,” another BCCI member said.

Faced with the prospect of losing its entire top officials, including president Anurag Thakur, the present BCCI officials have openly voiced their objections to the suggested reforms especially the three-year cooling off period and the policy of one state one vote. They have filed a review petition in the Supreme Court challenging Lodha panel’s recommendations, but are not left with many options.

The Board drew the apex court’s ire on Wednesday after Lodha committee submitted its status report before the Supreme Court listing violations committed by the BCCI vis-a-vis the panel’s recommendations. The Supreme Court warned the cricket board to fall in line and gave it time till October 6 to respond to the status report.

Meanwhile, Cricket Association of Bengal joint secretary Abhishek Dalmiya who was here to attend the meeting was set to fly back to Kolkata to be present in the ongoing Test match between India and New Zealand from second day onwards.

CAB are planning to make 250th Test in India memorable by felicitating all the players of India and New Zealand with special silver coins and also honouring Bengal players Mohammad Shami and Wriddhiman Saha.