Tenure of office bearers and selectors extended

The tenure of national selectors and office bearers of the Indian board has been extended to two years with the provision that they can be re-elected for an additional year. This comes into effect from September when the board's annual elections are held.

The board's Special General Meeting held in Mumbai on Thursday also decided that all its affiliated units would start a women's wing to promote women's cricket. The meeting deferred a decision on the Jharkhand-Bihar boards controversy by appointing a three-member committee to go into the issue.

"There's no provision to remove an office bearer at present through a no-confidence motion and that's the reason for opting for an extension of their term to the third year through re-elections," Shashank Manohar, BCCI vice-president, said at a press conference.

"It has also been decided that the candidate standing for presidentship and vice presidentship should be proposed by a member from the same zone which he represents though the seconder could be from outside the zone. If their performance is not satisfactory another person from the same zone can be elected for the third year."

"All these decisions were taken unanimously and no voting took place," Manohar added.

"It has also been decided by the special GM that the chairman would have an additional vote during elections as at present. This has been mired in controversy over the last four or five years," the board vice president pointed out. Two years ago, Pawar was defeated by Ranbir Singh Mahendra when the then president Jagmohan Dalmiya exercised his casting-vote privilege for his protégé.

The meeting also authorised Sharad Pawar, the board president, who chaired the gathering, to decide on the formation of various committees for holding the 2011 World Cup jointly with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The meeting decided to change the provisions of its constitution to help talented youngsters in sports disciplines other than cricket to train overseas. "We have not decided upon the amount to be earmarked for the purpose though the last working committee had fixed it at Rs 50 crore [approx 12 million US$]. It can be even 100 crore [approx 25 million US$], but first we had to make suitable amendments to our constitution to make this possible which we did today," Manohar said.

On the issue of women's cricket Manohar made it clear that the BCCI itself would not have a women's wing but only the units affiliated to it. "We will allow the existing women's cricket associations to conduct their affairs for the next year and would give them financial and other assistance. After that period they will have to wind up. It's up to them whether to accept our decision or not," Manohar said.