Internet Desk: RM Lodha Committee won over BCCI as Supreme Court of India accepted most of the recommendation of the Committee today. The court kept special attention on administrative structure of the board as well as to its transparency. The order was delivered by the two-judge bench comprising of TS Thakur, Chief Justice of India, and Justice FM Ibrahim Kalifulla, which has been hearing the case since January this year.
In January BCCI appealed to reject the recommendation of Lodha Committee of one-state-one-vote to be the electorate of BCCI. It accepted the recommendation that there should be a players association in the BCCI and the funding of players’ association accepted while leaving it to the Board to decide the extent of funding.
To bring clarity to the governance of BCCI and state committees Lodha Committee recommended that there should be five elected office-bearers comprising president, one vice-president, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer. These posts would serve a maximum of three terms of three years each across positions.
Also, they would not be able to serve two consecutive terms – each must be broken by a “cooling-off” period. The president’s powers were also curbed by the recommendations: he no longer has an additional vote at meetings, nor does he have a say in team selection.
The Bench accepted the recommendation that one person should hold one post in cricket administration to avoid any conflict of interest and scrapping of all other administrative committees in the BCCI after the CAG nominee comes in. This means that BCCI President Anurag Thakur who is also the President of HPCA too and IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla who is also the Secretary of UPCA has to withdraw from either of the post to avoid conflict of interest.
The court, however, left it to Parliament to decide whether the functioning of the BCCI can be brought under RTI as recommended by the Lodha panel and whether to legalise betting in cricket or not. It left it to the Board to decide whether there is need for any change in the existing agreement relating to broadcasting rights and whether a franchise member should be in the Board to avoid any conflict of interest.
The Bench requested the three-member panel, also comprising former apex court judges Ashok Bhan and R V Raveendran to oversee the transition of administrative structure in the BCCI which has to take place within six months. The panel – comprising Lodha and retired Supreme Court judges, Ashok Bhan and R Raveendran – had been formed in January 2015 to determine appropriate punishments for Raj Kundra, Gurunath Meiyappan and their respective franchises; decide on Sundar Raman’s role in the IPL 2013 scandal, and propose changes to the BCCI’s functioning to streamline its functions and prevent sporting fraud and conflict of interest.
The apex court-appointed Lodha Committee, on January 4, recommended sweeping reforms and an administrative shake-up at the troubled BCCI, suggesting that ministers be barred from occupying positions, a cap put on the age and tenure of the office-bearers and legalising betting. Some of the State cricket associations, former players Kirti Azad, Bishen Singh Bedi and cricket administrators also approached the apex court with regard to the implementation of Lodha panel recommendations.