Lodha panel bowls another bouncer towards BCCI

The committee had already pulled up the board for having violated a number of points in the July 18 judgement during their AGM and asked the Supreme Court to ‘supersede the present office bearers’ and appoint a new panel of administrators to run the board’s affairs with immediate effect. It looks likely now that once the BCCI files a response to this status report on October 6, the apex court will go ahead and pull the plug on Anurag Thakur & Co.
During the emergent working committee meeting, the board had decided to distribute the compensation that they had received from the broadcasters following the cancellation of the Champions League T20 to each of its member associations—an amount of Rs 19 crore each to the 25 state units. But in a mail to Yes Bank and Bank of Maharashtra—which hold the BCCI’s accounts—that is also marked to CEO Rahul Johri, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and secretary Ajay Shirke, Lodha committee secretary Gopal Sankaranarayanan has written that the ‘disbursement of these amounts are not routine’ and directed them to not go ahead with the transaction.

“It has come to the notice of this Committee that certain decisions have been taken at the ‘Emergent Working Committee’ meeting on 30th September 2016 to disburse large funds to the various member associations. You are aware that by way of this Committee’s direction dated 31.8.2016, no further decisions were to be taken regarding the future apart from routine matters. The disbursement of these amounts are not routine, and in any case, not emergent,” he writes.

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Sankaranarayanan then adds that the ‘first set of deadlines’ stipulated by the committee, which he states the board has ‘breached’, had included the ‘fund disbursement policy’. The emergent working committee meeting had been called for prior to the SGM that was convened to discuss the implementation of the new MoU and Rules and Regulations. The SGM itself had been postponed by a day from Friday to Saturday thereby resulting in the board missing the September 30 deadline to accept the first set of reforms.

“You are also aware that the BCCI has chosen to breach the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court as well as the first set of Timelines set out by this Committee which includes the Fund Disbursement policy to be framed by 30.9.2016. As the status report is to be taken up for directions by the Hon’ble Court on Thursday, 6.10.2016, you are hereby directed not to take any steps towards financial disbursement of the amounts as resolved /approved after the direction dated 31.8.2016. Any violation of this direction will be placed before the Hon’ble Supreme Court for appropriate directions,” the letter reads.

The BCCI had then gone on to release a press statement post their SGM announcing that they had unanimously adopted nine of the Lodha reforms. But these did not include the contentious ‘one state one vote’ policy, the fixed tenures for BCCI officials and the age-limit for their eligibility. They had also, however, added riders and disclaimers to some of the key recommendations that had been accepted—not giving voting rights to the representative of the players’ association for example as prescribed by the committee.

The BCCI had initially attracted the wrath of the Lodha committee after they went ahead and breached the Lodha committee’s directive to stick to ‘routine matters’ concerning the season that had gone by during their AGM on September 21. They announced their new selection panels and nominated Shirke as the secretary among other key decisions.

It is in response to these decisions that the committee had asked the Supreme Court to appoint a new panel in place of the present board officials and also render all the decisions taken post the July 18 verdict as ‘ineffective’. And the SC looks all set to accept the committee’s request on Thursday.