Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Cuttack, July 18:

The Supreme Court's verdict, accepting Justice Lodha Committee’s recommendations on structural changes including age-cap of 70 years for office-bearers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) foretells the end of reign of Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) Secretary Ashirbad Behera.

Ashirbad-behera

The septuagenarian administrator today said that he won’t be in the race for the top post in OCA anymore as he has already crossed the age bar as recommended by the panel.

Very soon BCCI Special General Body Meeting (SGM) will be convened after which OCA council meet will be held. OCA will function as per BCCI guidelines. OCA’s 170 members will elect their representative, OCA Secretary Ashirbad Behera said.

“BCCI will convene a Special General Body Meeting soon. We are bound to follow the BCCI guidelines and the resolutions at the meeting as OCA is an affiliate body of the Board,” Ashirbad Behera told media.

No one is above the organisation. Whatever has happened has happened for the betterment of cricket. I will continue to support the sport even if I don’t contest elections, he added.

Notably, the 73-year-old has been continuing in office since 16 years. Behera was first elected to the post in 2000. He was elected for the fourth consecutive term as OCA secretary’s post on August 25, 2012.

Earlier in April this year, former Indian cricketer Kirti Azad had criticized Behera for holding office for so long. While Azad was supporting the Lodha Committee recommendations to clean up cricket administration in the country in the wake of the corruption and match-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League (IPL) besides restructuring of the Board, OCA was one of the parties which were opposing it.

It may be mentioned here that the Board has been given six months' time to implement the recommendations.

Once it is implemented, it would not only mean end of the road for Ashirbad Behera, it would also be a dead end for veteran administrators like Sharad Pawar, Narayanswami Srinivasan and Niranjan Shah, among others.