Aditya Verma Wants to Appeal to the Apex Court to Exempt the Cooling Period of Sourav Ganguly and His Team

The current President of BCCI is Sourav Ganguly. Even though he acquired the position of the 39th president during October 2019, he will have to give up the seat by July 2020. This is in accordance to the new policies of the BCCI’s constitution.

The new policies require Sourav Ganguly to give up his position as President of BCCI

The new policies of the constitution states that no member can be a part of the board for more than six consecutive years. After completing six years, the individual will have to take a mandatory three year cooling period.

“any person who has been an office bearer in state as well as BCCI for consecutive period of six years will have to go for compulsory cooling off period of three years.”

The first position that Sourav Ganguly held was that of the secretary. Following that his next position was the President of the Cricket Association of Bengal. Now, he is the President of BCCI. However, this means that his period with the board has crossed five years already.

Aditya Verma wants the Court to exempt Ganguly’s cooking-off period

Now, Aditya Verma, who is the original petitioner of the IPL 2013 match-fixing case is coming forward. He says that he is ready to appeal to the Apex Court to exempt the cooling-off period that is approaching. Not only Sourav Ganguly, Verma also believes Jay Shah should continue as well. Jay Shah previously was the secretary of the Gujarat Cricket Association. Hence, his cooking-off period is approaching as well.

“Being the original petitioner on whose PIL the whole constitutional revamp happened, I have decided to file a plea that apex court should let Sourav Ganguly and his team (secretary Jay Shah in this case) continue for a term of three years.”

There are two reasons why Aditya Verma wants the Court to grant his plea.

First, he says that the intention behind his petition was to ensure a transparent functioning of the BCCI. Therefore, if someone like Ganguly cannot complete his term then the petition is pointless. Next, he says that previously the Committee of Administrators was mismanaging the BCCI. Hence, it is only normal that a new President will need time to put a proper system in place. He believes that Sourav Ganguly and his team needs that time.

Verma concludes by saying, “If you look at the current scenario. There is a complete lockdown in the country due to COVID-19 pandemic. Supposedly we lose two months of activity, it is unfair on both Ganguly and Shah that they are not given a fair chance to set the house in order. That will be my plea.”