KSCA elections postponed

The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has expectedly put off its elections scheduled next month following an emergency managing committee meeting here on Friday.

The decision comes in the wake of Wednesday’s missive from the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha Committee which instructed the KSCA to put on hold its elections and other proceedings, pending further directions.

The KSCA had written to the panel to allow it to hold elections as it was willing to implement the committee’s recommendations, approved by the apex court, from the next month’s elections. However, after more clarity emerged on the eligibility of candidates contesting elections, secretary Brijesh Patel-led ruling group was constrained to defer polls, scheduled for August 7.

“We had an emergency managing committee meeting and we have unanimously decided to postpone the elections as per the directions of the Supreme Court,” said Brijesh later.

“They (the BCCI) will tell us about the constitution of the committee (to be drafted) as per the Lodha panel’s recommendations. And accordingly, we will have to take the necessary steps. (For now), the (present) committee will carry on. In fact, the last elections were (held) in December and we had time till (this) December (to hold elections). We wanted to streamline a few things and so we decided to have elections before September, as per our (existing) by-laws,” he explained.

Asked if there will be any change in candidature as and when elections are held, Brijesh said it was too early to comment. “We have to wait and see. Let them come out with specifications in this regard... If there will be a president, three vice-presidents or one vice-president or will there be an apex council (as the one recommended for BCCI)... There is no clarity on that.”

The KSCA, meanwhile, decided to approach retired apex court judge Santosh Hegde to head a legal team and advise in amending the association’s by-laws to ensure effective implementation of the Lodha-panel recommendations.