CoA asks state associations to submit list of members

In what could be a game-changer for many of the state associations affiliated to the BCCI, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) has sent out an email to member boards asking them to submit a list of the general body members to the chairman Vinod Rai by August 8.

The move has been aimed at ending the nepotism within the BCCI, wherein several power-heavy state-affiliated members form sub-groups and run the organizations through proxy candidates.

It has been reported that several state associations, such as Saurashtra Cricket Association, Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, and the Andhra Pradesh Cricket Association are run by a small group of people who own several cricket clubs, while the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) is being run by proxies -- or fake office-bearers -- as almost all of its presiding officers have been mired in corruption charges.

The purpose behind the move is also to bring some clarity on how the state associations are run and how many members look after their day-to-day proceedings.

"The basic purpose of sending out the email is to ensure that nepotism is checked. There are several members who are blatantly promoting their own relatives and friends to the detriment of the association," a BCCI official told TOI.

"This, in turn, has fuelled a lot of financial corruption as crores of rupees have been siphoned off in various scams. Hence, it is the duty of the CoA to keep track of how the units of the BCCI are functioning. Some of the state bodies are very close to the current set of officials in the BCCI," the official added.

A prominent example of this coterie of members is the Haryana Cricket Association, which has been run by Ranbir Singh Mahendra and his son Anirudh Choudhury for over three decades. Choudhury is now the honorary treasurer of the BCCI.

Saurashtra, on the other hand, has been run by former BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah for more than four decades -- he was first elected as the secretary of the SCA in 1972 -- whose son Jayadev Shah has been captaining the state's Ranji side for several seasons.

While Shah averages 28.76 with the bat, it is somewhat astonishing to see that he has played more than a hundred first-class matches and has been the leader of the side.

Such family influences not only avert talent acquisition into the state sides but also present the BCCI and its affiliated members in poor light, forcing comparisons with how political houses are run in the country, with father-son duos almost always hogging the limelight.

The move is expected to bring a sense of accountability within the state associations and at the very least, bring to the fore the members who run these associations and their tenures at the office.