By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
New Delhi : Terms like ‘patron-in-chief’, ‘president’, ‘secretary’ and ‘treasurer’ will not be part of the Indian cricket board’s constitution any more, as per amendments proposed to be effected Tuesday.
These terms, along with ‘trustees’, ‘referee’, ‘working committee’ and ‘poll’ will also be deleted. They are among a whopping 38 amendments sought by the Sharad Pawar-led Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at a special general body meeting in Mumbai.
However, in the 25-page proposal distributed to its 30 affiliated units – a copy of which is with IANS – the BCCI does not mention the terms that will replace these. The document merely says “deleted” in the proposed column.
Several “new rules” are also proposed at the conclave on a day when a working committee meeting will also be held.
Many officials are not sure why the BCCI has decided to do away with these long-standing terms.
A two-third majority of the members attending and voting is required for any amendment to take place.
“It is beyond my comprehension what the present regime would gain by deleting these terms. It is quite baffling,” said a top official scheduled to attend Tuesday’s meeting.
Another veteran official who has been associated with BCCI for over two decades also found the proposed amendments quite surprising.
“I can only say that the BCCI is doing what (former chief minister) Mulayam Singh Yadav and (chief minister) Mayawati have done in Uttar Pradesh. They are ruining the board,” he said in exasperation.
“What I foresee is that they would probably bring in those terms (proposed to be deleted) in the running – that is, somewhere in the text of the constitution, and not separately. But let’s see what happens.”
The proposal to delete the term ‘patron-in-chief’ reminded these officials of 2004 when former BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya wanted himself to be appointed in the same capacity after the end of his term.
But a court had stopped the BCCI from appointing Dalmiya to a post to which no one had been appointed since the inception of the board in 1940.