Lodha report: BCCI to file affidavit in SC

Members, associate members and affiliate members authorised the BCCI Secretary, Anurag Thakur, to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court, by March 3, citing the anomalies and difficulties encountered in implementing the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India president Shashank Manohar (left) with secretary Anurag Thakur. The Board has been authorised by its members to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court in response to the Lodha Committee's recommendations.

Without being a party to an eloquent discussion on any feature of the Supreme Court Committee-initiated report on ‘Reforms in cricket’, members, associate members and affiliate members authorised the BCCI Secretary, Anurag Thakur, to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court, by March 3, citing the anomalies and difficulties encountered in implementing the Justice Lodha Committee recommendations.

At the outset, the BCCI president, Shashank Manohar, told the special general body at the Cricket Centre here on Friday that since majority of the members have already presented their views in writing on the Lodha Committee recommendations, and which has been read and dissected by senior BCCI officials, there was no need to repeat the same. The members were also advised to file intervention applications, if they so desire, stating their observations on recommendations they feel will be difficult to comply with.

“I think it was a smart and wise move. The president conducted the meeting well. He did not want any confusion to arise in the event of each member being given a chance to make his observations on the Lodha Committee’s recommendations. The president said that it was not a question of whether the BCCI agrees or disagrees with the recommendations. He said there are many parts in the report that need to be discussed and explained,” said a member from West Zone..

Clearly there are many features in the 300-page ‘Reforms in cricket’ report that the BCCI president, himself a very senior lawyer, would discuss with the Legal Committee members and the constitutional lawyer K. K. Venugopal before the affidavit is filed in the Supreme Court.

It’s not known how many members would opt to file the intervention application, but the three government-side members, Railways, Services and All India Universities, seem to have asked for guidance from the BCCI to find the right legal people to file their intervention applications. The Justice Lodha Committee has recommended that the above three, along with Cricket Club of India and National Cricket Club, Kolkata, be relegated as associate members with their voting rights withdrawn.

The three member units from Maharashtra (Mumbai, Maharashtra and Vidarbha) and Gujarat (Gujarat, Baroda and Saurashtra) too have been asked to choose one among them as a member with voting right. The Lodha report has made it clear that “In States with multiple existing members, the BCCI shall recognise one of them to represent the State, while the remaining shall become Associate Members.”