CHENNAI: If one expected the Committee of Administrators (CoA) to tighten the noose around defiant state associations of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the opposite is going to happen.
The deadline of September 14, by when the state bodies were supposed to complete their elections or lose voting rights at the BCCI’s annual general meeting on October 22, is set to be relaxed.
High-profile associations like Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are among the 10 associations that are still to send their amended constitutions to the CoA for approval. That is the first step in order to be eligible to hold elections. Some of the associations have expressed their inability to get things done by the September 14 deadline. Having said earlier that failure to do this will result in the loss of voting rights, the CoA is now considering extending this deadline for the units.
“Nothing is cast in stone. The objective is to hold BCCI elections on October 22. If some of the states have genuine problems in fulfilling everything by September 14, their case will be considered. The CoA will have a meeting this week and take a call on who all can be given this extension. It’s going to be only for those with genuine problems. The rest will have to fall in line,” sources following developments told this newspaper on Monday.
This means at least some of the units will not lose their voting rights despite not following the directive. It also means that the CoA would be going back on its word. Not an ideal world, but the BCCI has hardly been one of late.
Unfazed despite risk of losing voting rights
Some associations were confident that not meeting the deadline won’t result in being ruled ineligible. Cricket Association of Bengal has set October 1 as a tentative date for polls, while Tamil Nadu Cricket Association says it will finalise matters after a Supreme Court hearing.