Former BCCI interim-president N. Shivlal Yadav said that the BCCI could have avoided the “unfortunate scenario of its president and the secretary being sacked by the honourable Supreme Court”.
Read: >SC sacks Anurag Thakur, Ajay Shirke from BCCI
In an exclusive interview with Sportstar on Tuesday, the former India off-spinner felt that the BCCI should have straightaway honoured the recommendations of the the Supreme Court-appointed Justice R .M. Lodha Committee.
“In view of the attitude of the BCCI, these serious developments were always on the cards. It is pretty simple. Once the Supreme Court order is out there is no way but to accept it. Now there is no alternative, either for the BCCI or the state associations, but to implement the Lodha Panel guidelines," Shivlal explained.
“It was sad that some former presidents did not even give time to Justice Lodha when he was seeking opinion before giving his recommendations. They could have given their clarifications and suggestions. I believe it was a wasted opportunity by many top brass of the BCCI. Mind you, they were given time to make up their mind," he said.
Shivlal did not want comment on whether all this was because of the ego problem of the top brass of the BCCI but suggested this could have been avoided by better handling of things. “I cannot take names of individuals, but a better and more practical approach could have been adopted on this critical subject,” he said.
It may be recalled that Shivlal was one of the first to meet the Justice Lodha panel when the committee visited Hyderabad. He also provided his views to the Lodha panel on the proposed recommendations. “Yes, I felt change was required and accordingly gave my views to the panel,” he recalled.
Shivlal also made it clear that during his tenure the focus was on alleged match-fixing and Justice Lodha was appointed later on. “So, these issues never cropped up in our meetings."
On a personal note, the 59-year-old former Test cricketer felt that he was not in agreement with a couple of recommendations like the restriction on officials, who are above 70 years, from holding any post.
“This is purely my personal opinion that age cannot be a bar in discharging the duties,” he said, while insisting that everyone has to eventually obey the Supreme Court order.
He also welcomed the idea of former cricketers someone like Sourav Ganguly heading the BCCI. “This can be good for the game. Whether they will be successful or not only time will tell. But, one must remember here that there is a wonderful, qualified staff in the BCCI who have always been of great help to the administrators over the years,” he pointed out.
“I look at this only as a temporary, critical phase and the BCCI will come out of this and the game will go on as the honourable Supreme Court’s primary intention is to giving the administration a better and cleaner image,” Shivlal concluded.
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