Bowled out: When veterans of cricket were rejected due to their age

Even as the Indian team faced one of its biggest losses in the Champions Trophy on Sunday, back home, the cricket administration continues to be beleaguered, and on the lookout for panel members for the Committee of Administrators (CoA). And it’s tougher than it sounds. When Ramachandra Guha, who resigned from the CoA recently, had suggested that former cricketer Bishen Singh Bedi and former cricketer and umpire, Srinivas Venkataraghavan be on the panel, both names were rejected, since they were above 70 years of age.

Speaking to ETPanache about the rejection, Bedi said, “It’s awfully kind of Ram, but we do not conform to the age stipulation of Lodha Panel recommendations, so there isn’t much I can say,” he said. However, pointing at the lackadaisical functioning of the system, he added, “Some disqualified on similar grounds are clandestinely carrying on, much to the chagrin of the CoA and Lodha Panel.”