Supreme Court to decide Jay Shah, Sourav Ganguly tenures

Ganguly and Shah took over their roles in BCCI in October 2019 and as per the constitution will have to serve the mandated cooling period.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s case, which will decide the fate of its president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah, is listed for hearing at the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Sourav Ganguly will complete his tenure by July 27 while Jay Shah’s tenure ended earlier this month. (Getty Images)

BCCI on behalf of these senior board officials have appealed to the Supreme Court seeking a revision of the rule in the new constitution which states that administrators have to undergo a three-year cooling-off break after six successive years in any state unit or in BCCI.

Ganguly and Shah took over their roles in BCCI in October 2019 and as per the constitution will have to serve the mandated cooling period. The former India captain will complete his tenure by July 27 while Shah’s tenure ended earlier this month. Going by the same rule joint-secretary Jayesh George’s term gets over on September 23.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India have also filed a plea to relieve them from BCCI and state units’ Apex Council and Governing Council. Instead, CAG requested the court to consider “modifying” its original order where it can perform its primary role - of an auditor - on an “annual” or “biennial” basis.

It is learnt that petitioners Cricket Association of Bihar are going to pray to the court that Ganguly and Shah should be allowed to continue “for continuity” and because they haven’t been able to operate normally due to the pandemic.

IPL seeks govt nod

Meanwhile, BCCI will seek government permission to stage this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) in the United Arab Emirates, league chief Brijesh Patel said on Tuesday. Monday’s postponement of this year’s T20 World Cup, which was scheduled to take place in Australia from Oct 18, has opened up a window for BCCI to stage the IPL.

Cricket boards in UAE and Sri Lanka have offered to host the league considering the situation in India where the number of Covid-19 cases had surged to 1.16 million on Tuesday morning, including 28,084 deaths.

“We are yet to finalise when it will begin, maybe sometime in September,” IPL governing council chairman Patel said. “They (Emirates Cricket Board) made an offer to host it but we require government permission to stage it in UAE. We’ll discuss the issue in the next governing council meeting in 7-10 days.”