On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of India adjourned the hearing of a plea by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) seeking an extended tenure for its president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah to Thursday. The Ganguly-led panel had taken charge of the BCCI in October 2019.

The plea also includes changes in some of the amendments of its constitution.

The BCCI urged the court to revise a rule in its new constitution, which mandates that administrators have to go through a three-year ‘cooling-off period’ after six successive years in the BCCI or any state association.

The ‘cooling-off period’ was a significant recommendation made by the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee to reform cricket administration in the country. In its 2018 judgment, the Supreme Court saw Justice Lodha’s conclusion that “the game will be better off without cricketing oligopolies”. 

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The court supported the recommendation that cricket administrators should have a ‘cooling off’ period before contesting elections to the BCCI or state associations.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly had begun as a secretary at the Cricket Association of Bengal in 2014, following which he became the association's president. He was re-elected in September 2019 before moving to the BCCI in October that year.

On the other hand, Jay Shah was elected as the joint secretary of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) in 2014 and took charge as the BCCI secretary in 2019.

(Sportstar inputs)