Former India captain Sourav Ganguly could become the next president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), according to reports.

The Supreme Court recently set aside some of the recommendations of the Lodha panel, approving a new draft constitution. This change could force the BCCI to look at getting former Indian cricketers for the top post.

Most of the current and past administrators are ineligible for the BCCI president post because of the cooling-off period provision. Ganguly, who is into his third term as president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, is eligible according to The Indian Express.

Although the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra relaxed the cooling-off clause for office-bearers serving more than one term, the current office-bearers of the BCCI — acting president C K Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry — are stillineligible to contest in the next board elections.

IPL governing council chairman Rajeev Shukla and former BCCI president Anurag Thakur are also among those who will not be eligible to contest. Both of them have completed nine years in office in their respective state associations.

The Indian board is eyeing Ganguly as someone who could give the BCCI an image makeover following a string of administrative controversies, according to a New Indian Express report.

The 46-year-old, who has been an administrator for four years, would be eligible for BCCI elections without taking a cooling-off break provided he resigns from his CAB post, the report said.

As per the newly approved BCCI constitution, there won’t be a zonal rotation policy for the post of president. Any representative from any state association can nominate a candidate, but it has to be seconded by someone else.

However, if Ganguly becomes BCCI president, he would have to give up the post after two years because he would be completing a cumulative period of six years.

“He is definitely eligible and ticks most of the boxes,” the report quoted a senior BCCI functionary as saying. However, the report added that Ganguly will only enter the fray if there are no opponents.

The Supreme Court had earlier set aside Lodha panel recommendations such as the one-state-one-vote policy.

As a result, the Mumbai and Vidarbha cricket associations were reinstated as full members of the board. The court accepted recommendations such as barring politicians or government servants from holding office. It also upheld the age cap of 70 years for administrators.

The BCCI's zonal policy has been done away with, which means that any name can enter the fray on the backing of any representative from any state.

The board members believe that under Ganguly, even for a period of two years, there will be stability in management. It will also be an image-cleansing exercise, especially under the former India captain.

In an interview with The Hindu earlier this year, Ganguly had said: "Players can be good administrators but it depends on how much time they put in. What you are ready to put in as an administrator is also important. I think non-players can also be very good and I think it should be a balance of both; they both have a place in the system, and that’s important."

Ganguly retired from international cricket in 2008, and played in the IPL until 2012, before moving towards administration, being part of the BCCI’s technical committee, the cricket advisory committee, and the IPL governing council.