Following the Supreme Court order on January 2, which stated that office bearers of the BCCI and state associations who did not meet the eligibility criteria set by the Lodha Committee should step down immediately, officials from a few state associations have said they would not continue in their posts. The court order is likely to affect all state bodies with the exception of the Vidarbha and Tripura associations, which had adopted the Lodha recommendations in entirety last year and put in place new administrations. Following is a list of officials who have stepped down so far:
Eligibility criteria
According to the Lodha committee’s recommendations, an office bearer …
Should be a citizen of India
Should not be 70 years or older
Should not be a government servant or minister
Should not hold office in another sports organisation
Should not have held office with the BCCI or state association for more than nine years
Should not be insolvent or of unsound mind
Should not have a criminal record
January 4
Saurashtra Cricket Association
Niranjan Shah (secretary). Shah, 72, became ineligible because of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations of an age limit of 70 and tenure cap of nine years for office bearers. “I am out post the Supreme Court order. There is nothing much to say really and there is no need to resign,” Shah said. “The court order very clearly states the eligibility criteria.”
Tamil Nadu Cricket Association
Kasi Viswanathan (secretary). “There is no question of resigning. I have already been TNCA secretary for more than 10 years and therefore I stand ineligible,” Viswanathan said. “The TNCA is calling an executive committee meeting to discuss how to implement the Lodha recommendations.”
January 3
Karnataka State Cricket Association
Brijesh Patel (secretary), Ashok Anand PR (president), Dayanand Pai (treasurer). Patel had served as secretary for more than a decade, exceeding the nine-year tenure limit, while Ashok Anand and Pai exceed the 70-year age cap recommended by the Lodha Committee.
January 2
Kerala Cricket Association
TC Mathew (president), TN Ananthanarayan (secretary). Other office bearers to resign: S Haridas, TR Balakrishnan and Sunil Koshy George. The officials who resigned had “cumulatively or separately completed nine years in office”, according to a PTI report. Mathew, who is 52 years old, is also a vice-president of the BCCI from the west zone and is eligible to remain in that position.