BCCI files affidavit in Supreme Court opposing Lodha panel recommendations

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) made a last-ditch attempt to maintain status quo in cricket administration by stoutly opposing the 'sweeping' reforms proposed by the Supreme Court-appointed Justice R M Lodha panel.

In an affidavit before the SC on Tuesday (March 1), the BCCI toed the line taken by its members in their applications seeking to be included as parties in the hearing of the petition filed by Cricket Association of Bihar, which led to a probe into allegations of betting and spot-fixing in IPL 2013 and resulted in disqualification of then president N Srinivasan from getting re-elected to the top post.

Radha Rangaswamy, BCCI counsel, said the board's affidavit was filed in response to the Justice Lodha panel's recommendations. A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur had on February 4 asked the BCCI to respond to the recommendations to carry out radical reforms in the management of cricket and had made it clear that status quo was unacceptable.

But the BCCI stuck to the stand taken by senior advocate Shekhar Naphade on February 4 and said the panel had recommended 'sweeping changes' and, if implemented, they would create innumerable procedural issues causing chaos in the administration of cricket.

The cricket board toed the line taken by its members like Punjab Cricket Association, which through advocate Neela Gokhale had on Monday told the SC that barring ministers and bureaucrats from holding posts in the BCCI would be a violation of the Societies Registration Act, which did not prohibit such persons from taking up responsibilities in the administration of societies.

The BCCI opposed the curtailing of advertisements during live telecast of cricket matches and said it would severely affect several welfare measures undertaken by the board for ex-cricketers and for maintenance of cricket stadiums. It opposed the Lodha panel's 'one state-one vote' recommendation saying states like Maharashtra and Gujarat for long had multiple membership as each association owned and maintained international stadiums.

The board also disagreed with the panel's recommendation to bring down the number of selectors from the present five to three, saying existing selectors find it difficult to watch each and every match played at the zonal level for identifying talent. Curtailing their number to three would make it extremely difficult for selectors to hunt talented youngsters in a country where players bloom even in the most backward areas. The BCCI said if the recommendations were to be implemented, then the board's registration under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act would have to be cancelled and it would create a huge procedural wrangle relating to the assets of the board in terms of stadiums and infrastructure.

Earlier in February, the bench had refused to brook any delay in implementation of the Lodha panel recommendations and said, "If the BCCI is finding it difficult to implement them, then it is easy for us to make it happen. We will accept all the recommendations and direct the same committee (Justice Lodha panel) to implement it for the BCCI. The committee will tell you (BCCI) where to register and where to de-register. They will tell you in sequence what to do and what not to."

As a final word of caution against any dilly-dallying, the bench had said, "If you want to do it, do it quickly. Otherwise we will write a small order saying since the BCCI is finding it difficult to implement the reforms, we are asking the Lodha committee to assist in implementation of the reforms."