SC names former CAG Vinod Rai to run BCCI

The Supreme Court on Monday appointed a panel of cricket administrators to implement the recommendations of the Lodha committee. Headed by Vinod Rai, former comptroller and auditor-general of India, the panel will oversee the operations of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The panel also comprises Bengaluru-based historian Ramachandra Guha, Infrastructure Development Finance Company managing director Vikram Limaye, and former women’s Test cricketer Diana Edulji.

Taking the next step after removing BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke, a three-member bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, nominated the administrators as an interim measure, in accordance with its own January 2 indications. “The BCCI CEO will report to the committee which shall take care of the affairs of the BCCI. The BCCI shall report to the committee of administrators, who shall supervise the management of the board,” the bench said.

The order came after the court considered names suggested by amicus curiae Gopal Subramanium and Anil Divan. Kapil Sibal, who represented some state cricket associations, and Arvind Datar, who represented the BCCI, had also submitted some names. The bench, with Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud, refused to accept attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi’s plea to include the secretary of the sports ministry as one of the administrators.

The court cited its earlier direction that no government servant should be a member of the BCCI. The bench also turned down the argument, put forth by the BCCI and state associations, that it would disturb the cricket body’s electoral college by appointing outside administrators.

In order to ensure “objectivity and transparency”, the court allowed BCCI officials Amitabh Choudhary and Anirudh Chaudhry, along with Limaye, to represent the top cricket body at a meeting of the International Cricket Council in the first week of February.

During the hearing, Sibal objected to the name of Rai, contending that he stands disqualified as he holds the government post of Banks Board Bureau chief. The bench, however, rejected the contention, saying a former CAG could not be appointed to a government post. The court also directed advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the Lodha committee, to alert the administrators to deficiencies in implementing the reforms suggested by the court-appointed committee.