CoA chief Vinod Rai says BCCI should hold new elections in three months time

The CoA will step away once the new BCCI office holders are chosen.

Vinod Rai said that BCCI has three months to hold a fresh elections for office bearers

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has registered its new constitution and now the state associations have four weeks from Aug 21 to comply with it and file their report.

Speaking to the media in the Capital on Monday, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators made it clear that in normal circumstances, BCCI should be holding elections in three months.

CoA Chief Vinod Rai also said that once the new BCCI management comes to office, the committee will step away and hand over the day-to-day functioning to them.

We are looking at elections in about 90 days. The compliance report needs to be giving within four weeks from the date of registration. We have given the date as September 20. There is no cause for any ambiguity. Exit on the day the elected officials come into office. There is a specific mandate that has been given to the CoA, rest assured that we will not overstep it by a day,” he smiled.

He further said, “As far as the BCCI is concerned, the new constitution has come into effect and there is no two ways about it. The Supreme Court order is very clear. It says the state association should mirror the BCCI constitution. So whether it is a committee or a trust or a co-operative, it has to mirror the issues which are in the BCCI constitution.”

The order is very clear, but since some people have approached the court, I don’t wish to give a BCCI interpretation of it because the board doesn’t give interpretation to these issues. I don’t wish to talk upfront because this issue has been raised in court. The court can clarify if it deems it needs clarification,” he said on confusion on whether an official is allowed to function for 9 years in the state and 9 years in the board or a combined term of 9 years.

There is a directive to constitute a steering committee which will nominate two players who shall constitute the Apex Council. Former players coming into the administration of the BCCI is a very good step. Players’ voice will be heard. The Apex Council will have one male and one female member in not just the BCCI, but also in the state associations. All cricketing matters will be decided by the former players,” they explained.

Speaking about the ugly spat between Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble, Rai said, “Kumble had a one-year contract. It had no renewal or extension clause. When the CoA took over, we got to know a month later that his contract was expiring and we followed the protocol that was followed during his appointment. The idea was to select the head coach by the CAC — comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. Transparency requires you follow a process and the due process throws up a result. The CAC was the entrusted body and they did what they felt was best. It wasn’t an unceremonious exit as his contract was only for a year. We made no statements on Zaheer Khan or Rahul Dravid’s appointments. Our job was to select the head coach through the due process.

Rai said that they were putting up clarifications for new teams in domestic scene, “Some of the associations have approached us for some clarification, so what we are doing is we will be putting up a guideline on the website for guidance. We don’t wish to say something and have the state associations say that we interpreted it wrongly. The state associations are free to interpret the constitution the way they want to and we will file compliance the way they have interpreted it. We will put out a model since some states have asked for it.

Asked if the CoA had received any compliance report and who all they felt would not toe the line, Rai said: “It is court mandated, if somebody breaks it, we will report compliance accordingly. The registration was done on August 21, how do you expect compliance report to be filed by any of the state associations so soon? Far too early for us to discuss so and so will do it and so and so will not do it.”

The bank account of the BCCI shall be operated by two authorized signatories from out of a list of authorized signatories, designated by the Apex Council from among the professional management who are based out of the headquarters in Mumbai. We have no choice. It says professional management based in Mumbai. Even today, there is an acting secretary, an acting president and an honourary treasurer. No powers have been taken away from anybody,” he said.

(with inputs from hindustantimes.com)

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 28 Aug, 2018

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