'No AGM, BCCI Summons Working Committee Meet on September 26'

The BCCI seems to have finally found a solution to the impasse related to its much-anticipated Annual General Meeting in an informal gathering of its members on Sunday where it was decided to convene a Working Committee meet on September 26.

"The BCCI AGM will not be held within September 30," an official, who attended the meeting, told PTI on condition of anonymity.

Sunday's meeting was a show of strength by under-fire BCCI president N Srinivasan, who has been forced to step aside due to the ongoing inquiry into the IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal. Srinivasan's one-year extension is coming to an end this month but he is eligible for another term if he is nominated by East Zone, whose turn it is to elect the BCCI president.

Soon after a special Supreme Court Bench refused to reinstate Srinivasan as BCCI president on September 1, several "senior" BCCI officials have been quoted in various reports leading to confusion over the AGM's status.

With the Board deciding to convene a Working Committee meet, the AGM is unlikely to be held on the scheduled date of September 30 as rules demand for a three-week gap between the two meetings.

"There is no way that the BCCI AGM can be held within September 30. Around 20 members today attended the meet which showed that Srinivasan has overwhelming majority among the 31 members," the official said.

The BCCI was in quandary on the fate of the AGM as majority of members wanted it to be postponed till the Supreme Court-appointed Mukul Mudgal committee submits its final report in the first week of November.

If the report clears Srinivasan of any wrongdoing, the Tamil Nadu strongman is unlikely to face any election as the opposition faction led by former BCCI president Shashank Manohar has support of a mere four units at the moment.

Among other decisions taken at the meeting, the fifth ODI of the upcoming home series against the West Indies will now be held on October 20 in Kolkata. The match was earlier scheduled for October 17 in Cuttack.

This was prompted by an earlier decision to award the October 22 Twenty20 match to Cuttack.

The West Indies will begin their six weeks tour with a five-match ODI series beginning in Kochi on October 8, followed by the one-off T20I and a three-match Test series from October 30 in Hyderabad.

Besides, the BCCI also decided to conduct the Annual Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Memorial Lecture in Kolkata.