Sunil Gavaskar, former India captain, fears one-state, one-vote policy in the Lodha recommendations may dilute the standard of Ranji Trophy as according to him, there are some states that are still not ready to play Ranji Trophy and if these states are made to play the premier tournament, then the level of Ranji Trophy will deteriorate and the competitive spirit will not be the same.
“No problem with ‘one-state, one-vote’ but maybe states that are not ready to play first class cricket should not be allowed to because it would dilute the quality of Ranji Trophy cricket,” the legendary cricketer said on the sidelines of Kolkata Literary Meet.
“For example states like Meghalaya and Nagaland, who don’t have the proper cricketing infrastructure, are going to play Ranji Trophy when they are not ready to play first-class cricket, then I think the standard of cricket will be diluted and that’s not going to help Indian cricket.”
“Not every county plays county cricket in England and not every state plays shield cricket in Australia,” Gavaskar added.
It should be noted that Maharashtra and Gujarat have three state associations playing as permanent members in domestic competitions of the BCCI. Along with that, there are Railways and Services team, which play in domestic cricket and if Lodha recommendations are implemented in toto, these two state associations might also lose their voting rights.
Meanwhile, Gavaskar added BCCI is the only sports body in the country where there is a change in power after certain period of time as the administrator assuming the office, had a definite tenure and a new person was appointed to the post following a process.
“There was always a new person coming. So (Sharad) Pawar had three years, Jagmohan Dalmiya had three years. Everyone has three years, and then they moved away and the senior vice-presidents took over,” he said.
“So there was this thing happening, it’s just that in other federations it is needed. Whatever it is, the Supreme Court’s decision has to be respected and we all have to accept. As I said, the quicker we get ahead, the better it will be for Indian cricket.”
The Supreme court is yet to announce a BCCI President. Till then, the court has appointed Anirudh Chaudhry and Amitabh Chaudhry as board’s representative in the next meet of the ICC in the first week of February.