Dubai: It was a day of mixed emotions for Indian cricket. As Team India celebrated their convincing victory over England in the second Test at Visakhapatnam, the top officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have been dealt with a huge blow on Monday.
The Lodha Committee has urged the Supreme Court to immediately remove all top BCCI officials from their posts as well as all officebearers of all state associations that have not adhered to their recommendations set by the top court in July this year.
The committee has gone to the extent to suggest that all officebearers of the BCCI should be sacked and has requested the court to appoint former home secretary G.K. Pillai as an observer to supervise the administration of the board. Pillai, as observer, may now conduct the task of even appointing auditors for awarding BCCI contracts.
Incidentally, the granting of media rights for future editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is scheduled to be held soon.
The Lodha committee, which was formed to ‘clean up’ Indian cricket administration following the 2013 Indian Premier League spot fixings scandal, had given series of recommendations of which only a few were implemented but rest were ignored.
This resulted in committee putting on hold disbursal of funds to state associations until they implemented the recommendations.
The BCCI officials have been defiant on the ground that the committee’s recommendation like one-vote-for-one state, age and tenure cannot be implemented.
The committee’s recommendation to the Supreme Court to remove all officebearers can result in the president, secretary, joint secretary, treasurer and five vice-presidents being sacked.
It can also lead to Anurag Thakur, the president of the BCCI and Ajay Shirke, the secretary being disqualified.
Ever since the court order in July, only four associations, Hyderabad, Vidarbha, Tripura and Rajasthan and have agreed to conform with the recommendations.
The court had directed the BCCI and state units to submit affidavits pledging full implementation of the Lodha panel report.
The committee’s recommendation to bar officebearers above 70 years has been heavily opposed. Another recommendation that a minister or a government servant should not hold any office post was not adhered to as Thakur, the president himself is a politician. The tenure cap of nine years with cooling-off periods for any administrator was also vehemently opposed. Incidentally, the Supreme Court had given BCCI between four and six months to implement the recommendations. Following the failure to implement the recommendations, the court had ordered to freeze funds for the BCCI which almost threw the ongoing tour by the England team into disarray. However, the court heard a petition by the BCCI and instructed release of funds to the organisers of each match.
The court is now scheduled to hear the matter next on December 5.