Professor Ratnakar Shetty, one of BCCI’s longest-serving administrators, will have to call time on his career by December 31, after the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators on Wednesday fixed 60 as the retirement age for BCCI employees.
Along with Shetty, who has served the BCCI for a decade-andahalf, and the Mumbai Cricket Association prior to that for more than a decade, former Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, the current head of the BCCI Anti-Corruption and Security Unit, and Leander Paes’s father Dr Vece Paes, who is in-charge of the board’s anti-doping wing, will have to retire by December 31.
Shetty, a former chemistry professor at Wilson College, is well over 65, and was given an extension to continue as the board’s general manager (development and administration). A source close to the Committee of Administrators, appointed to oversee the functioning of the BCCI, said Shetty’s extension ends on December 31 and there was no plan to give him further extension.
When contacted, Shetty said he was not aware of such development, nor had anyone asked him to retire, even as this newspaper has learnt that all BCCI employees over 60, including two officials working in the accounts department, will be asked to retire.
“The decision to retire employees over 60 years was taken some time ago, but it was approved by the Committee of Administrators only on Wednesday. An announcement to this effect will be made soon,” a board source said.
Shetty, who has a reputation of a no-nonsense administrator, took over at the BCCI’s chief administrative officer in 2005 when Sharad Pawar took over the board’s reins from Jagmohan Dalmiya. He was the manager of the Indian team during its historic tour to Pakistan in 2004, where it won both the Test and ODI series, with Virender Sehwag becoming the first Indian batsman to score a triple century in Test cricket.
With MV Sridhar, who resigned recently as general manager, operations, Shetty was expected to continue because the BCCI does not have experienced administrators in its ranks, but the Committee of Administrators decided against it.
(Courtesy: Mumbai Mirror)
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