NEW DELHI: The entire administration of the BCCI should be removed, the Lodha Committee has urged the Supreme Court. It also sought the immediate and automatic removal of the office bearers of all state cricket associations that have not complied with the criteria set by the top court in July.
The Lodha Committee sought the Supreme Court’s approval to appoint former Union Home Secretary GK Pillai as an observer to monitor the administration of the board. It also sought permission to appoint secretarial staff and fix their remunerations.
The recommendations are the latest development in the stand-off between the Supreme Court and the BCCI+ over reforms that span the entire breadth of cricket administration in the country.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and its affiliate state associations have resisted some of the reforms recommended by the Lodha committee, and had received sharp rebukes from the Supreme Court for this. The Court had also criticised the constitution of the BCCI, saying it was unsuited to bring any level of transparency.
Most recently, on October 21, the top court had placed restrictions on BCCI’s financial freedoms. It had ordered the board not to disburse money to the state associations. It had then allowed the release of limited funds for the conduct of the ongoing Test series between India and England.
The three-member Lodha Committee, led by former Chief Justice of India RM Lodha, had been appointed by the Supreme Court in 2015, to recommend reforms to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and all its affiliated state-level cricket associations.
This had come in the aftermath of the match fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League+ (IPL), that saw two teams banned from the competition for two years.