Sunny's name stumps cricket administrators

The Supreme Court's desire to have Sunil Gavaskar as interim BCCI president during the IPL probe left the board officials stumped after Thursday's hearing.

The Supreme Court's desire to have Sunil Gavaskar as interim BCCI president during the IPL probe left the board officials stumped after Thursday's hearing. As per the BCCI constitution there is no provision that allows a former player to become interim president, confirmed former board legal head Usha Nath Banerjee.

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But Banerjee said this situation has to be treated differently. "Right now there is no such provision in the BCCI constitution that would allow a former player to become interim president. However, only the Supreme Court, and no other court, has the authority to propose a name. In this situation, they have to accept it," Banerjee told HT.

The BCCI has a few former players as officials but they generally come through the ranks of club elections followed by their respective state association elections. Gavaskar does not officially represent any state association. Generally BCCI presidents work out of their own state association offices, like in the case of N Srinivasan (from Chennai) or Jagmohan Dalmiya (Kolkata). If at all Gavaskar comes to power, it would present the BCCI with an unprecedented situation of having a president without any state office. Though the Supreme Court holds discretionary powers, a BCCI official felt the situation could give the BCCI counsel some grounds to plead when the case comes up for hearing again on Friday.