NEW DELHI, July 18: The Supreme Court verdict accepting the Lodha Committee recommendations on age-cap of 70 years on BCCI office-bearers today effectively meant the end of the road for veteran administrators like Sharad Pawar, N Srinivasan, and Niranjan Shah to name a few.
The SC verdict, as per recommendations, will also mean that BCCI president Anurag Thakur (Himachal Pradesh), secretary Ajay Shirke (Maharashtra), treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary (Haryana) and joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary (Jharkhand) will have to forego their positions in their respective state associations to avoid “Conflict of Interest”.
The Board has been given six months’ time to implement the recommendations.
While former BCCI president Pawar is 75 years old, Tamil Nadu strongman Srinivasan is currently 71 years old. Both are presidents of their respective state associations - Mumbai CA and TNCA respectively.
Saurashtra Cricket Association supremo Shah, who has served BCCI for over three decades in various capacities such as secretary, joint secretary, treasurer and vice president, is 72 years old. He admitted that he is “disappointed” but has to “respect” the apex court’s order.“Yes, I am very disappointed but this is the verdict of the Apex Court of the country, which will have to respect,” Shah said.
Shah, however, feels that it will at least take another 18 months to fully implement the SC verdict.
“The BCCI will have to first implement it at their end and then the state associations will have to also implement the same. In my understanding it will take another 18 months to put everything in order as per Lodha Committee recommendations,” Shah observed.
He was, however, non-committal when asked as to who would replace him in SCA, an association where it has been a ‘One Man Show’ for over three and half decades.
“My members had given mandate to work for the betterment of cricket in the region. Saurashtra has one of the best international stadiums right now. We would be hosting a Test match and we have ODIs, and T20s. We have also successfully hosted the IPL,” Shah concluded.
