A rebuke to BCCI

The Supreme Court is extremely serious about reforming the operations of the Indian cricket board (BCCI). The writing is on the wall, but BCCI’s officials seem blind to it. They are resisting and ignoring the recommendations of the Lodha Committee, which was appointed by the Supreme Court to reform and restructure BCCI in the wake of the betting and spot-fixing scandal in the IPL in 2013. But after the Lodha Committee filed a status report in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the BCCI officials must wake up to the seriousness of the situation. The Chief Justice of India, TS Thakur, has made very stern remarks about the obstinacy of BCCI’s officials. He has said that the officials think that “they are a law unto themselves” and added: “They behave like lords. Fall in line or else we will make them fall in line.”

There is no room for ambiguity or interpretation in these words. In its status report, the Lodha Committee has said that “BCCI has repeatedly taken steps to undermine the committee and the Supreme Court”, and that several of its statements and actions are “grossly out of order and would even constitute contempt.” The Supreme Court rebuked the officials and said that it could install a separate committee to run BCCI. BCCI will hold a special general meeting today (Friday) to decide its further course of action, and it would do well to seriously debate and understand the consequences of picking up a fight with the Supreme Court of India.

BCCI officials have no option but to accept that their time is up and make way for professionals to run cricket in the country. But it’s very difficult for “lords” to give up power voluntarily. BCCI officials still may not go down without a fight. The Lodha Committee proposes age and tenure restrictions on the officials, which make most senior officials in BCCI and the state associations ineligible to remain in office. For them, accepting the Lodha Committee recommendations is tantamount to signing their own death warrant. For this reason, they may continue to resist and might need to be forcibly evicted.