Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju has said that the Board of Control for Cricket will come under the proposed sports code once it is enacted.
“Once we come out with a proper refined sports code, everything will come under it, including cricket,” Rijiju was quoted as saying in Indian Express. “It will be settled. Let’s wait for some time. We will come up with a refined sports code.”
The Sports Minister did not give a time frame for when the sports code will be put into effect but he said he was on the case.
“I cannot give you a timeline, but there is a Delhi High Court order, giving direction to my secretary and other bodies to present a case before the minister, that is me, and then take a call. I have received a copy of the order. Besides the court’s direction, we have begun the process,” he said.
But if the sports code is enacted, the BCCI, which adopted the Justice RM Lodha-approved reforms, will have to change its constitution again.
The Supreme Court appointed a Committee of Administrators in 2017 and it left office last week. Sourav Ganguly was elected as the new president of the reformed BCCI.
The new constitution restricts members according to game and tenure. Ganguly will have to leave the post after 10 months because of his cooling off period. The Lodha reforms permit a cumulative period of nine years for any BCCI office-bearer with a three-year cooling off period between each period.
The draft of the sports code allows a president to serve three terms of four years each without a break.
“In the meeting with the IOA and sports federations, I told them that we will form a committee and then take the opinion of all the stakeholders, and then come up with a refined sports code,” Rijiju said. “They happily agreed. They authorised me to do what I want to do.”
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