MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has begun work towards executing a key reform of the Lodha committee – forming a Cricket Players’ Association (CPA). As per the minutes of a meeting of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) on December 12, the CoA has decided to form a ‘Working Group’ comprising cricket legend Kapil Dev, former India batsman Anshuman Gaekwad, wickwet-keeper Bharat Reddy and ex-India women’s team captain Shanta Rangaswamy, which will work with former home secretary GK Pillay to “commence the process of the formation of CPA.”
It must be noted here that in its fourth status report, the CoA had sought directions from the Supreme Court for reconstituting the steering committee, which had been recommended by the Lodha Committee towards the formation of a players’ association in India. Three out of four members of the steering committee, including former India batsman Mohinder Amarnath, had quit the steering committee, expressing their inability to be a part of the same.
The CoA had then suggested the names of Kapil, Gaekwad and Reddy as the replacements in the steering committee. While the CoA was informed that it “won’t be advisable for it to reconstitute the steering committee, since the issue was pending before the SC, it could start the preparatory work for the formation of the same.”
Rangaswamy has been included the working group so that there’s at least one woman cricketer who can help in identifying the women cricketers who can help in identifying the women cricketers to be a part of the CPA, since the original steering committee named in the Lodha report also recommended the presence of one woman cricketer.
Rangaswamy’s name has also been recommended by the CoA to the apex court to be a part of the steering committee. “We’ve had two meetings already. Right now, we’re collecting information from the BCCI about all the former cricketers in India in the male, female and physically challenged category,” said a member of the ‘Working Group.’