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N Srinivasan's daughter Rupa Gurunath takes charge as TNCA chief

Becomes first woman president of an Indian state cricket association; Niranjan Shah's son Jaydev elected Saurashtra Cricket Association boss

Rupa Gurunath has been elected unopposed as the TNCA chief  •  TNCA

Rupa Gurunath has been elected unopposed as the TNCA chief  •  TNCA

Rupa Gurunath, N Srinivasan's daughter, has been unanimously elected president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA), while Jaydev Shah, Niranjan Shah's son and a former Saurashtra captain, has taken charge at the Saurashtra Cricket Association to extend the links of the BCCI's old guard with cricket administration in the country.
Rupa was elected unopposed for the position, as were the rest of the office bearers. She has never held an administrative position in cricket before and was not a member of the TNCA. She is a whole-time director at India Cements, the company owned by Srinivasan which also owns the Chennai Super Kings team in the IPL.
After taking charge, Rupa said resolving the long-standing issue of the three closed stands at the MA Chidambaram Stadium would be her first priority. "My immediate priorities are to finalise the Lease Agreement with the Government and opening the three stands," she said in a statement. "Of course TNCA has zero tolerance for any form of corruption and TNCA will take appropriate action on any such issues.
"We shall continue to provide all necessary amenities and any other requirements for the players to perform at their best and look forward to improve their performances in all forms of Cricket."
Rupa is married to Gurunath Meiyappan, the former Super Kings official who was banned for life from any involvement in cricket for his role in the IPL betting scandal in 2013 by the Justice RM Lodha Committee.
Apart from deciding the quantum of punishments for those found guilty in the scandal, the Supreme Court had empowered the Lodha Committee to make recommendations for reforms within the BCCI. The court accepted most of the recommendations, which eventually became the basis for the BCCI's new constitution.
Under the new constitution, Srinivasan and Niranjan Shah are ineligible to hold office in the BCCI or its member associations for multiple reasons, one of them being that they are both more than 70 years old. There is, however, no clause preventing their relatives from contesting elections or holding positions of power and influence.
Jaydev, 36, was a first-class cricketer who retired from all forms of cricket last season, after scoring 5354 runs at an average of 29.91 in 120 first-class matches, most of them as Saurashtra's captain.
The Committee of Administators, tasked by the Supreme Court of India to oversee the functioning of the BCCI, had given the state associations till October 4 - postponed from September 28 - to complete their elections, while the BCCI's elections must take place by October 23, deferred by a day from the original date of October 22.