The Committee of Administrators (CoA) will submit a status report before the Supreme Court based on the outcome of the BCCI’s Special General Meeting (SGM) in Mumbai on Monday. The Administrators — Vinod Rai (chairman), Vikram Limaye and Diana Eduljee — will not wait for the cricket board’s seven-member ‘special committee’, formed on Tuesday, to file its report by July 10.

The SGM on Monday had the adoption of the new constitution as per the Lodha Committee recommendations as Item No.1 on the agenda. But the members once again decided to drag their feet on the reforms, resulting in a stalemate. The “reluctance” hasn’t gone down well with the CoA.

“Of course, the CoA will not wait (for the BCCI committee report). They will have to file the status report at least five working days before the court meets, so it doesn’t matter what the BCCI committee suggests. The Administrators will not wait for anything. They got a clear indication yesterday and will go ahead,” a source close to the CoA told The Indian Express. The next hearing is scheduled on July 14.

During its meetings with the state associations on Sunday, the CoA had told the members to adopt the new constitution, assuring them that the Committee would be sympathetic about a few practical points. The members had also been told that defiance might force the CoA to file a status report, requesting the court to impose the new constitution upon the BCCI. 

“All these (decisions at the SGM) have made things much, much easier for the CoA now. Now they don’t have to do any tightrope walking; trying to even convince the court about practical things like three selectors, one state-one vote and all that. Things have now become very simple.

“The CoA spent a lot of time, trying to build a consensus. Now it has become much easier for them to convince the court about what they want. They have been very sympathetic about two-three practical points. The members had all the opportunities, which they wasted,” said the source.

Meanwhile, the BCCI on Tuesday formed a seven-member ‘special committee’ comprising Rajeev Shukla (chairman), Sourav Ganguly, TC Mathew, Naba Bhattacharjee, Jay Shah, Anirudh Chaudhry (BCCI treasurer) and Amitabh Choudhary (acting secretary, BCCI and convener) “to identify the few critical points in respect of the said judgment (July 18, 2016 Supreme Court order) for the General Body of the BCCI to consider before its submission to the Hon’ble Supreme Court”.

The committee will submit its report to the cricket board’s acting president CK Khanna, who, in turn, will place it before the general body for final approval. Khanna hasn’t been included in the committee because his wife is recuperating from a major surgery and it would be difficult for him to attend the meetings on a day-to-day basis. The acting president, however, “will be apprised on a regular basis”.

But the fact of the matter is that even some BCCI functionaries don’t seem too convinced. 

“It’s unlikely that this committee will do some magic in 10 days. Nineteen state associations have filed their respective affidavits before the court, citing reservations over certain clauses in the Lodha Committee recommendations. It would be very difficult for them to re-evaluate and change their affidavits midway,” a cricket board official told this paper. 

(Courtesy: The Indian Express)