Haryana, Tamil Nadu barred from BCCI AGM

Pune, October 9

The cricket associations of Haryana (HCA), Tamil Nadu (TNCA) and Maharashtra (MCA) have been barred by the Committee of Administrators (CoA) from attending the BCCI Annual General Meeting in Mumbai on October 23 due to their non-compliance with the Lodha Committee recommendations. 

In effect, this means that the three non-compliant units will not be able to vote at the BCCI AGM. 

“Yes, the CoA has intimated the two state units that they would be debarred from participating in the elections as they have not amended their Constitutions as per Supreme Court orders on August 9, 2018. Maharashtra is also going to be debarred from attending the AGM,” a source close to CoA said.

CoA chief Vinod Rai, who is currently in the United States, was unavailable for a comment. TNCA, which is under the control of former BCCI president N Srinivasan, was supposed to be represented at the AGM by its secretary SS Ramasaamy while Haryana, under the rule of outgoing BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, was set to be represented by Mrinal Ojha.

Major violations

Maharashtra is going to be barred from the AGM as the Charity Commissioner of the state had found anomalies in their amended constitution. The unit is still under the control of former BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke and was supposed to be represented at the AGM by Riyaz Bagban. 

TNCA, which recently elected Srinivasan’s daughter Rupa Gurunath as president, had 21 violations in their amended Constitution. Non-compliance in the age cap rule (70 years for office-bearers) and tenure of cooling off period are the major ones.

Even after they complied with a few provisions later on, TNCA didn’t adhere to the major reforms. Instead, taking an aggressive stand, TNCA argued that it was not in CoA’s authority to bar any state unit from the AGM, and that their job was to merely file status reports on compliance. Haryana and Maharashtra toed the same line. On their part, CoA argued that the elections are being conducted under their watch and no non-compliant association would be allowed to take part in the AGM.

Future course

“The intimation (on barring TNCA) from attending BCCI AGM had been received,” a TNCA source said. “But it has only been from CoA. We will wait for the electoral officer to announce the valid electoral list for the AGM before deciding on our future course of action.” Electoral officer N Gopalswami will release the list of eligible state representatives on Thursday. The implication of the decision to bar the three state units could be two-fold, and the BCCI could be divided on this issue. In case there are unanimous choices for the five office-bearers’ posts (president, vice president, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer), it won’t mean much. But the three associations could go to court and get a stay order on the AGM, and that could cause problems. — PTI