The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) acting president CK Khanna has directed acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary to recall the July 11 Special General Meeting (SGM) notification and reschedule the meeting with the stipulated 10-day notice.
The general body was scheduled to be held in Delhi at 4.30 pm on Tuesday to deliberate and decide on four ‘critical’points (one state-one vote, three-member selection committee, cooling off period for office-bearers and powers given to the function of professionals) in the Lodha panel recommendations that the cricket board’s special committee expressed strong reservations against.
Khanna’s email to Choudhary came after the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association’s (TNCA) objection – reported by The Indian Express – to the SGM, saying that without the required 10-day notice, a general body is in contravention of the BCCI rules and “violation” of the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act 1975. Saurashtra, Kerala, Goa, Karnataka and Haryana, too, wrote to the BCCI disapproving the proposed SGM.
“We have received objections from Tamil Nadu, Saurashtra, Kerala, Goa and Haryana also. And I have replied to the state associations. I have written to the honourary secretary that we have received objections and in view of these objections we should reschedule the meeting and issue another notice. Now, the secretary has to take a call,” Khanna told The Indian Express.
Some BCCI functionary reportedly still want to go ahead with the SGM citing precedents. But Khanna puts things in perspective. “In 2002, when (the late) Jagmohan Dalmiya had called an SGM with a shorter notice, it was condoned by the house unanimously. Also, when Anurag Thakur had called a meeting with a shorter notice, the house condoned it unanimously.”
The members, however, haven’t received any communication from the secretary yet, confirming the postponement/cancellation. But as per the BCCI constitution, president’s consent for a formal meeting of the general body is mandatory. An informal gathering won’t have the locus standi to take any decision.
According to a BCCI official, the members who raised objection stated that they needed a 10-day notice to discuss the matter within their respective state associations.
