'We sincerely believed a democratically run elected body should run cricket in the country.'
The Committee of Administrators announced that the much-awaited elections of the Board of Control for Cricket in India will be held on October 22.
The CoA, which was appointed by the Supreme Court in January 2017 to oversee the sweeping reforms recommended by the Lodha panel, announced the elections date in New Delhi on Tuesday after due consultation with the apex court-appointed amicus curiae P S Narsimha.
The Supreme Court had assigned Narsimha in March to mediate with various state associations which had filed 80 interim appeals.
In the meeting attended by all three CoA members -- chief Vinod Rai, Diana Edulji and Ravi Thodge -- the deadline to hold state elections was set at September 14. Rai said 30 out of 38 state associations have been rendered compliant and the rest are in the process of amending their constitution as per the Lodha reforms.
Asked about elections finally taking place in the BCCI, which has suffered from administrative crisis for more than two years, Rai said he is a happy man.
"When I was appointed by the Honourable Supreme Court, I had said that my role will be of a night watchman and this night watchman has stayed for very long," Rai saud.
"We (CoA) are happy because our job was very specific. It was mandated to make them (the state associations) accept the constitution (as per Lodha recommendations). They had difficulties which was mediated between us, amicus and the court. We are happy to hand it over them.
"We sincerely believed a democratically run elected body should run cricket in the country," added the former CAG.
Rai lauded amicus Narsimha's role in dealing with the state associations.
"We gave a lot of status reports (10 in all) to Supreme Court. Supreme Court heard all the associations, then amicus was appointed by the Supreme Court to hold mediations.
"Amicus spent about 150 hours talking to all the state associations on clarifications which were sought. Ultimately, the state associations have come forward and accepted all the recommendations, about 30 odd have been rendered compliant."
The strength of the apex council could be increased for the state units but in the BCCI, it will be limited to nine members as proposed.
"Of the main constitution only one concession has been recommended by the amicus in his report to SC and that was regarding the apex council.
"The apex council in state associations was supposed to mirror BCCI's (nine members). They had practical difficulties because cricket is run in the state itself. They have players and ground committee and other committees. They indicated their difficulty to amicus.
"We jointly felt that we needed to increase this number and make it more flexible. Roughly it should be limited to 19 and in that three nominated members will also be there, 16 would be elected," he added.
The Supreme Court had, in January 2017, sacked BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke, and asked other office-bearers who don't meet the qualifications set by the court to be on the board to demit office or stand disqualified.
Elections schedule:
June 30: Appointment of Electoral Officer by BCCI and preparation of the electoral protocol by the Electoral Officer of BCCI in consultation with the COA which shall be communicated to all the State Associations.
July 1: Appointment of Electoral Officer by State Associations.
August 14: Completion of preparation of the list of members, election protocol and electoral roll of the State Associations by the Electoral Officer of the State Association.
September 14: Completion of Elections of State Associations.
September 23: Sending of names of representatives of State Associations to BCCI.
September 30: Preparation of the electoral roll of nominees qualified for the BCCI elections.
October 22: BCCI elections.
