Lodha seeks removal of BCCI top brass

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 28

Miffed with the BCCI’s defiance in conducting the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and taking certain decisions in complete violation of the Lodha panel recommendations, the Supreme Court-appointed committee on Wednesday sought the removal of BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke.

Submitting its strongly-worded 79-page “status report” before the three-member bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur, Justice RM Lodha, chairman of the committee, requested the apex court to “supersede” the present BCCI office-bearers and appoint a “panel of administrators of the BCCI to ensure the smooth transition from the old to the new system”. The committee approached the court to direct BCCI that “all the decisions taken after the SC’s July 18 order that are contrary the directives of the committee are non est and ineffective”. The committee came down hard on Thakur for making “objectionable” statements in the public domain that “undermined” the court and the committee. The report mentioned that Thakur did not meet the committee members even once despite their repeated e-mails to him to appear in person.

To highlight Thakur’s high-handedness, the committee attached some of the media reports, quoting Thakur as saying that BCCI was “arm-twisted” and “sidelined” by some “people who have never played the game and are now trying to govern the board.”

The committee apprised the court that there’s a clear lack of will on the part of the BCCI to implement the reforms, as they have already missed seven deadlines since the July 18 verdict. The committee was clearly angered by the BCCI’s brazenness in violating recommendations during the recently-held AGM, despite its instructions to not to carry out any “new business for the year 2016-17” and only keep the decision-making restricted to “routine business pertaining to the year 2015-16”.

 The BCCI not only re-elected Shirke as the secretary but also appointed a selection panel of five selectors against the committee’s recommendation of three. Out of these five selectors, who have a collective experience of only 13 Tests between them, two haven’t played any Test match. The committee was clear in its recommendation that the national selectors should have played Test cricket. The AGM also passed the annual budget of 2016-17.

 “While the BCCI office-bearers gave assurances to the committee on August 9, August 25 and September 20 that they would cooperate with the committee towards fulfilling the directions of this hon’ble court, the events over the past weeks have shown that this is not the case,” the report stated.

“Directions of this hon’ble court have been ignored, actions have been taken to present a fait accompli to the committee, the directives of the committee have been breached, and the member associations have not been duly intimated about the directions of the committee and the timelines fixed by it. With as many as seven of the timelines to be complied with by September 30, it is now clear that the BCCI is in no position to ensure that the timelines are complied with. The conduct of the office-bearers in not following the SC committee directions has created serious impediments in the implementation of the directions of this hon’ble court,” the report added.

The court has asked BCCI to come up with its response by October 6.

BCCI’s next line of action

Hours after the SC rap, IPL Governing Council chairman Rajeev Shukla held an urgent meeting with senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley at his residence, it has been learnt. 

The Lodha committee has already raised eyebrows over the proposed BCCI SGM in Mumbai on September 30. According to the report, the BCCI was to hold an Executive General Meeting (EGM) with its state associations by September 28 to adopt the new Memorandum of Association and Rules (MoA) and other amendments. But, Shirke informed the committee that the BCCI would “consider” the amendments at the SGM, infuriating the committee members.