BENGALURU: The Supreme Court’s order to implement the Lodha Committee reforms had its fallout in the Karnataka State Cricket Association on Tuesday. KSCA President PN Ashokanand, Secretary Brijesh Patel and Treasurer P Dayananda Pai quit their posts with immediate effect.
Tuesday’s move comes a day after Board of Control for Cricket in India President Anurag Thakur and Secretary Ajay Shirke were removed by the Supreme Court on charges of contempt and perjury with the Board dilly-dallying when it came to the implementation of the Lodha Committee reforms to clean up cricket administration in the country.
KSCA spokesperson Vinay Mruthyunjaya said: “We will now elect a president, secretary and treasurer for an interim period. We have to implement the Lodha Committee recommendations and then conduct the elections. The three interim officials will be elected at the managing committee meeting on January 5.”
The KSCA was scheduled to conduct elections last August. But with the SC order, some procedures have to be followed to conduct elections now. Mruthyunjaya explained that the constitution bylaws will need to be changed before calling for elections. “We will have to conduct a special general body meeting to amend the bylaws. Only after that can we conduct elections in accordance with the Lodha Committee recommendations,” he said, while adding that there is no question of not adopting the recommendations
Supreme Court order had made it very clear that anyone who has served in the Board or state associations for a cumulative period of more than nine years will have to go. Former Test cricketer Patel has been the Secretary for five terms from 1998, barring one term when Anil Kumble (president), Javagal Srinath (secretary) and team held office. While Patel has clearly been in office for more than nine years, the other two exceeded the 70-year age limit for administrators that the Lodha Committee recommended.
This also means that Patel will not be able to hold any post in the BCCI as well. On Monday, Kerala Cricket Association President TC Mathew and Secretary TN Ananthanarayan, among other office bearers, quit their posts.
