Ashish Shelar’s new role as a minister in the Maharashtra government means the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will soon have another vacancy.
Under the BCCI constitution, Shelar, who has been the board’s treasurer since October 2022, will have to resign from his role in cricket administration as ministers are not allowed to hold positions on the cricket board.
With Jay Shah becoming the president of the International Cricket Council, the post of BCCI secretary is now vacant and for now, president Roger Binny has handed over the secretary’s functions to joint secretary Devajit Saikia until the secretary’s post is “duly filled in accordance with the processes prescribed in accordance with the BCCI rules and regulations.”
The Board’s Articles of Association provide that from the moment of resignation of a member of the Management Board of its choice, the Board has 45 days to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting and elect his successor, so now that Shelar is taking over as minister, Board insiders indicate that the president must soon convene an Extraordinary General Meeting and conduct elections for vacant positions.
However, the ruling BCCI dispensation has not commented on Shah and Shelar’s successors so far.
Implementing the Lodha Committee’s recommendations in 2016, the Supreme Court had ruled that no minister or government official – including parliamentarians and MLAs – could become an administrator in the BCCI. Shelar was then vice-president of the Mumbai Cricket Association and was barred from holding his positions soon after the verdict.
However, in September 2022, the Supreme Court allowed the BCCI to amend the constitution, allowing MPs and MLAs to belong to state and BCCI associations, while the directive banning ministers from holding positions remained intact. This enabled Shelar and MP Rajeev Shukla to return to the BCCI administration as treasurer and vice-president respectively.
