Lodha Committee quashes hopes of Sourav Ganguly to be next BCCI president

The name of Sourav Ganguly was doing rounds in the news in the recent past. The reason behind this being Ganguly emerging as the forerunner for the post of the next BCCI president. The year of 2017 started on a rather unpleasant note for the top BCCI officials. The apex Indian court had a massive crackdown at the functioning of the Indian cricket board.

Supreme Court gave a huge setback to the BCCI by sacking its president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke. With the sacking of Thakur, the need to find the replacement heated up. Many thought that Ganguly would be the ideal man to lead the proceedings of the top cricket board. However, the Lodha committee and its reforms have quashed all hopes of Ganguly to be eligible for the post.

As per the reforms, Ganguly will have to serve a cooling period of 3 years after his completion of 3 years as the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) President. The Lodha committee put down 7 FAQs for the board and the administrators to clear all the doubts. Among the seven FAQs, the number 7 was directly linked to Sourav Ganguly.

The FAQ question asked, “If an individual has been an existing office bearer in a State/Member Association for 2 years, is he eligible to contest for the next elections without the 3 year cooling off period applying to him? If yes, what will be the term of his office?”

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In response to the question, the answer stated in the FAQ was, “If at the time of the election the existing office-bearer has not completed a period of 3 years, he is eligible to contest the election however, he will not have a full term and will have to demit office immediately upon the continuous 3 year period being completed. This is to avoid any potential abuse. For example, if there were no such bar, an office bearer could resign after 2 years and 9 months and then claim eligibility to stand at the next election 3 months later on the ground that a new term would commence.”