With just a day left for the England cricket team to arrive in India for a five match Test series, there was no breaking of ice between the Lodha Committee and the Indian cricket board in sight. The stage is thus set for the Supreme Court to intervene.
The Justice R.M. Lodha-led committee appointed by the Supreme Court to implement cricket reforms rejected a letter of partial compliance sent by Anurag Thakur, president, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The committee had asked the top office bearers of the board to first send a letter of compliance with the apex court's interim order of October 21 and thereafter get down to getting the requisite financial clearances for all its activities.
This impasse between the BCCI and the Lodha committee continues. The SC had ordered Thakur and BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke to meet the Lodha committee within two weeks of the order being passed. With only four days left to the deadline, Thakur and Shirke have yet to meet the panel.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which deals with financial and commercial aspects of the bilateral series needs to be signed before the series starts, but that can only be done post the clearance from the Lodha Committee. England lands on November 3 in Mumbai, a week ahead of its first Test match in Rajkot.
The panel concludes that the BCCI will continue to impede the SC orders including the last one on October 21. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur had put the financial squeeze on the BCCI to get it to comply with reforms in ‘toto.’
Rejecting the part compliance with the order in the letter sent by the BCCI, the committee, in a searing mail, accused Thakur of “cherry picking” on reforms that BCCI wished to implement. The letter, signed by Lodha panel secretary Gopal Shankarnarayan stated, “You have stated that you would take 'all steps in accordance with law' to implement the directions at Paragraph 20 of the Supreme Court's order. This language is identical to the one you have employed in the past with this committee and with the Supreme Court to cherry pick those aspects that you would seek to refer to a vote by the member associations. As far as this committee is concerned, it is implicit that the orders of the Supreme Court are in accordance with law. It cannot possibly be implied by you or anybody else that the Supreme Court is passing illegal directions.”
The BCCI is accusing Lodha panel of delaying responding to its flurry of letters seeking clarifications and permissions related to the forthcoming England series. It has sought to put the onus of smooth functioning of the sport on Lodha Committee's head calling it the "custodian of the game". It has, meanwhile, succeeded in delaying full implementation of the reforms process.
Thakur, in his letter dated October 24, had outlined the reforms implemented, the details and decisions taken in the Special General Body Meeting of the board and issues that are sub judice.
“This has no relevance to the question at hand. You have further referred to the stand of the office bearers of the BCCI which was also not sought from you,” the letter stated in brutal honesty.
The Lodha committee went on to conclude, “In the absence of the unambiguous and unequivocal letter of compliance from the President duly undertaking on behalf of BCCI to unreservedly comply with the order of Hon'ble Supreme Court dated 21.10.2016, the Committee anticipates (having regard to the consistent stance adopted by the BCCI that it has issues with regard to reforms concerning governance) that there would be impediments in carrying out the order dated 21.10.2016.”
