BCCI backing IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla to attend ICC meetings
Rajiv Shukla, a former vice-president of the BCCI, recently quit as secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association.
With virtually no chance left to function as cricket administrators, a clutch of under-70 Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials are eyeing to represent India at the International Cricket Council (ICC).

On January 24, the Supreme Court allowed the BCCI to recommend a three-member panel to represent the Board at the ICC. It is learnt that the BCCI has suggested the name of former vice-president and IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla, who recently quit as secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association.
Sources reveal that the BCCI has also suggested the names of Amitabh Choudhary (Jharkhand) and Anirudh Chaudhry (Haryana). The Supreme Court will pick one representative in its next hearing on Monday at 3 PM.
Apart from the BCCI, the Attorney General of India, representing institutional units like Railways, Services and Universities, will also submit three names for the panel of administrators. On Monday, the Supreme Court is expected to name a committee which will be asked to execute the Lodha reforms in the BCCI. All names are in a sealed envelope.
Sunil Gavaskar’s name is doing the rounds. Appointed by the apex court, Gavaskar served as interim president in 2014 when the Supreme Court was hearing the 2013 IPL match-fixing and betting scandal and had asked then-president N. Srinivasan to step aside.
Gavaskar managed the IPL affairs while Shivlal Yadav was asked by the Supreme Court to handle rest of the BCCI matters. A part of the IPL was played in UAE that year.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra made it clear that the Lodha reforms will be binding on the BCCI. The Bench rejected Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s appeal to recall the reforms passed by the court on July 18, 2016.
“Once we pen an order, it is clear as day that it will be implemented… Where were you when Supreme Court passed the orders?” the Bench asked Rohatgi.
The writing is clear on the wall for the BCCI: India’s never-retiring cricket officials are now looking to represent the Board at the ICC. “That’s the only inch left for the Shuklas and Choudharys,” said a source.
Sources have also questioned how Amitabh Choudhary continues to sign the Board’s letters as BCCI joint secretary. Having served as an official for more than nine years in Indian cricket, he is apparently disqualified under Lodha’s tenure cap rule.
But then, the Lodha reforms have often created more confusion than clarity.