MCA's draft constitution relaxes cooling-off clause

The constitution committee of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), which met on Monday (January 15), accepted the new draft constitution of the association, which incorporates the Lodha reforms, but after a significant modification.

While the committee accepted the 70-year-age cap on administrators and the nine-year tenure clause, it has relaxed the cooling-off clause, allowing two consecutive three-year terms for those in office, instead of just one, as the Lodha reforms mandate.

"If you know that you won't be able to continue once your term is over, what incentive will you have to work? You will just want to enjoy the fringe benefits of the chair and not want to work," former MCA president Ravi Savant, a key member of the constitution committee, told TOI. "The modification was necessary because the roles of the BCCI and the state association are different," he added.

"We've modified it (the clause allowing just one three-year term in the office). Whenever we realised that this point hasn't reached in the SC. In fact, even the Committee of Administrators (CoA) has requested the apex court to amend this clause. The two bodies (BCCI and the state association) are totally different. They have different functions. So you can't blindly adopt what's been recommended for the BCCI," he explained.

The new draft constitution is expected to be accepted by the MCA's managing committee in its meeting on Tuesday. The MCA will then circulate it to all the 330 members for their observation/feedback, and call for a Special General Meeting (SGM), in which it'll adopt the reforms.