‘Undoing BCCI reforms will be ridiculing SC’

New Delhi, November 12

The plans of the Indian cricket board (BCCI) to dilute the reforms mandated by the Supreme Court amount to “ridiculing” the Supreme Court, said Gopal Sankaranarayanan, the Lodha Committee secretary who played a pivotal role in drafting the revamp.

“If this is permitted to be done and if it remains unchallenged in court and the Supreme Court does not either have a challenge before it or it does not take up suo motu, it will mean ridiculing of the Supreme Court and everything that it did over the years,” Sankaranarayanan said in an interview with a cricket website.

The proposal to change the reformed constitution came to light last Saturday when BCCI’s new secretary, Jay Shah, listed the agenda for BCCI’s AGM, to be held in Mumbai on December 1. 

The most stunning amendments include altering the rules concerning the cooling-off period for officebearers, relaxing various disqualification criteria and removing the need for any changes to the constitution needing approval from the Supreme Court.

“It will completely mean going back to square one as far as cricket administration and reforms are concerned. Most of the significant changes would have ceased to exist,” Sankaranarayanan said. 

The Lodha Committee was appointed by the Supreme Court in 2015 to usher in reforms in cricket administration in the country. The Supreme Court stepped in after BCCI’s officials — led by its president N Srinivasan — swept under the carpet the spot-fixing and betting scandal in IPL 2013. BCCI’s old guard fought tooth and nail to resist reforms, and have managed to install family or friends in key positions in the state associations.

Court role

Sankaranarayanan said if the reforms are undone, it could be challenged in the court. “They are trying to imply that they will no longer need the Supreme Court’s imprimatur when it (BCCI) makes changes (to the constitution),” he said. 

“In my view the court will have a role because the court had a role all this while. It was specific when it approved the initial reforms (in 2016), then it approved the constitution that was drafted and submitted by the Committee of Administrators last year,” he said.

“They (BCCI officials) could possibly try and argue that, ‘Look, the Supreme Court has not barred us from amending our own constitution so we are more than capable of amending it and making all sorts of changes to it’. That is a narrow way of looking at things,” he said.

“They will somehow ensure whatever is left after Supreme Court itself had reversed much of the (original reforms) so that old cliques can continue to operate in a big way,” he added. — TNS, Agencies 

The most stunning amendments include altering the rules concerning the cooling-off period for officebearers, relaxing various disqualification criteria and removing the need for any changes to the constitution needing approval from the Supreme Court.

It will completely mean going back to square one as far as cricket administration and reforms are concerned. Most of the significant changes would have ceased to exist — Gopal Sankaranarayanan, lodha committee secretary