Aditya Verma to appeal at Supreme Court to extend Sourav Ganguly’s tenure

It was a dramatic turn around from Aditya Verma, who was totally against the N Srinivasan camp during the spot-fixing scandal that rocked Indian cricket.  But the man from Bihar Cricket Association was seen coming to the office to the combined Anurag Thakur-Srinivasan group that made way for Sourav Ganguly to become the BCCI president and Jay Shah to be the secretary. Now, as the Covid-19 pandemic rocked the world and put the sports actions into a literal standstill, Verma revealed his ambition of appealing to extend Ganguly’s tenure.

"Being the original petitioner on whose PIL the whole constitutional revamp happened, I have decided to file a plea that the apex court should let Sourav Ganguly and his team (secretary Jay Shah in this case) continue for a term of three years. My entire intention was to ensure BCCI has a transparent functioning. If a person of Sourav's stature can't complete his term, then what's the use?" Verma told PTI.

As per the Lodha Committee recommendations, if a person has been an office-bearer in the state as well as BCCI for a consecutive period of six years, they will have to go for a compulsory cooling-off period of three years. That will mean Sourav Ganguly, who was associated with CAB for over five years and Jay Shah, who was the secretary at the Gujarat Cricket Association for almost a similar period of time, will have to leave the board. Verma believes the pandemic has put a halt on their activities which is unfair on their terms. 

"The BCCI had been completely mismanaged by the Committee of Administrators (CoA) for nearly three years. Any person coming in charge needs time to put a system in place. Ganguly and his team must be given that time," Verma said.

"If you look at the current scenario. There is a complete lockdown in the country due to the 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," Verma said.