Supreme Court okays TNCA polls: N Srinivasan successor to be elected soon

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association heaved a big sigh of relief on Friday after a Supreme Court directive cleared the hurdles for its elections. The executive committee members of the TNCA will convene a meeting on Monday to decide the date for polls. The election results, however, will be subject to the final orders of the apex court.

While most of the state associations have already announced their election dates, the TNCA had to wait for a clarification from the Supreme Court regarding the disqualification criteria (based on the Lodha Committee recommendations) for the management committee. The SC, in its Friday directive, observed that the disqualification criteria would apply only to principal office-bearers.

The election is likely to be held in the last week of September as the 21-day notice period for holding elections is set to be waived by the court-appointed amicus curiae P.S. Narsimha.

N. Srinivasan had been at the helm of TNCA since 2002 before the former ICC chief stepped down from the president post in 2017 following the Lodha recommendations that disqualified the office-bearers who were over 70 years old. The TNCA has been functioning without the president for almost three years.

A set of new administrators, most likely from Srinivasan's camp, will take charge in TNCA as the majority of the old guards are either disqualified or have to go through a cooling-off period. Srinivasan enjoys unstinted support from the district associations. The name of the likely successor of Srinivasan will emerge only after Monday's EC meeting.

A top TNCA official said the association was pleased with the SC order. “The TNCA had complied with almost everything that the Lodha Committee had suggested. We, however, wanted some clarifications. The SC has cleared that the disqualification applies only to the office-bearers,” the official said.