Niranjan Shah slams the age-limit reform suggested by Lodha Committee

What’s the story?

The inclusion of 73-year-old Niranjan Shah in the special committee formed to study the Lodha Committee reforms attracted criticism from many quarters.

Responding to the questions raised against his age, Shah said, “I don’t understand this hue and cry over the age limit of the BCCI office-bearers. If our President can work beyond 70, what is so wrong about BCCI officials working beyond that age limit?”

He also went on to say that age should hold no barriers in choosing the working administrators of the Board of Cricket for Control in India.

“As long as you are fit, you can work even till the time you are alive. I call this age discrimination. I think my experience will come handy in the panel as we have discussed the recommendations at length during the BCCI Special General Meeting. Though all members will have a say,” he added.

In case you didn’t know...

In January 2017, the Supreme Court instructed the BCCI to strictly keep an upper age limit of 70 years for all its officials and panel members. Talking about this reform, Shah’s appointment in the committee to oversee reforms like this received flak from all quarters.

The details

The former Saurashtra cricketer also spoke against two other recommendations from the committee: the one state-one vote clause and the three-year cooling-off between two terms. He said that states that have contributed more to Indian cricket over the years deserve to be major contributors in the BCCI.

Speaking on the second matter-at-hand, Shah said that a gap between two consecutive terms makes no sense, and that it might end up hampering the ‘seamless transition’ from one official term to another.

He is hopeful of the Supreme Court reviewing the suggestions that the committee makes after studying the reforms.

What’s next?

The first session of this committee will be held on Saturday (June 30). Sourav Ganguly will preside over the meeting, and former IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla will also be a part of the 7-member committee.

Author’s take

While Shah’s personal point of view about the age-limit and one state-one vote clause is clear, it remains to see what the rest of the committee thinks on the same. You would hope that all the members of the committee have an equal say in its discussions and that they keep personal bias out of the same.