Sanjeev Gupta, a life member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, has challenged Sourav Ganguly’s continuation as Board of Control for Cricket in India president.

In an email to Ganguly and other officials on Sunday, Gupta has said that the BCCI rulebook disbars anyone from functioning as president once he has been nominated to the International Cricket Council (ICC) Board.

Ganguly, having been included in the ICC Board as BCCI representative soon after attending its meeting on March 28, has emerged as a contender for the soon-to-be vacant post of ICC chairman.

Gupta states that according to Rule 14(9) of the BCCI constitution “it is amply clear that as soon as you are nominated to ICC, your post as BCCI president will get vacated automatically forthwith”.

A BCCI official, however, dismissed Gupta’s objection. “The clause should come into effect only if an office-bearer is elected to the ICC. Otherwise the BCCI will be forced to nominate someone other than an office-bearer, which will be ridiculous,” he said.

BCCI appeal in SC

Interestingly, an appeal made by BCCI in the Supreme Court makes no mention of clause 14(9). The appeal, filed by treasurer Arun Dhumal through Adv. Bina Madhavan on April 21, requests the Court to permit BCCI to “carry out the amendments to Rule Nos. 6.4, 6.5, 7.3, 15(3) & (4), 19(2) and 45 in the Constitution which have been approved in the Annual General Meeting held on 01.12.2019.”

The appeal requests the Apex Court to separate tenures of office-bearers of BCCI and State associations before cooling-off comes into effect and also to curtail the powers of the CEO. According to the current rulebook, the CEO has extraordinary powers, which the first AGM after Ganguly and Jay Shah (secretary) were elected seeks to restrict.

Also, the BCCI has appealed that the clause mandating Supreme Court approval for any amendment to the BCCI constitution be done away with.