The Supreme Court-appointed Justice R.M. Lodha Committee, that has been tasked with the implementation of reforms in cricket, has cancelled its scheduled meeting on Friday (October 21).
With no work in hand — following the apex court’s decision on Tuesday (Oct. 18) to defer the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s review petition — the committee had no option, but to call off the meeting.
“The Committee may have cancelled the meeting because it is unclear about its own mandate,” was a one-liner from a lawyer who has been following the case.
The BCCI had filed the review petition on August 16, within one month of the Supreme Court order on July 18 when it approved the Justice Lodha Committee’s reforms in cricket, but by effecting modifications on live broadcast issues raised by the BCCI.
Three months have gone by with the BCCI not making any substantial moves and fall in line with the Supreme Court’s order to adopt the reforms in cricket report. The BCCI has only restated the difficulties to implement the radical reforms because of various reasons; mainly because of legal hindrances (the BCCI is registered under the Tamil Nadu Society’s Act and the full members are either registered under the State Society’s Act, Company Law Board or as a Trust) and also because of the impracticability of adhering to many recommendations, and perhaps rightly so.
In the status report submitted to the Supreme Court on September 28, 2016, the Committee, after detailing the sequence of events that transpired after July 18, and noting them as impediments, had proposed to the apex court to “supersede the present office-bearers of the BCCI immediate effect, and appoint in place a panel of administrators of the BCCI to ensure the smooth transition from the old to the new system.
“While the office-bearers of the BCCI gave assurances to the Supreme Court Committee that they would cooperate with the Committee towards fulfilling the directions of this Hon’ble court (subject to any modifications or review), the events over the last weeks have shown that this is not the case.
“Directions of this Hon’ble court have been ignored, actions have been taken to present fait accompli to the Committee, the directions of the Committee have been breached, and member associations have not been duly intimated about the directions of the timelines fixed by it,’’ said the Lodha committee in its status report.
Two full members of the BCCI though – Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) and Tripura Cricket Association (TCA) – have taken the first major step to adopt the MOA, Rules and Regulations and informed the Lodha Committee about it.
OptimisticThe Lodha Committee may have been optimistic of some action by the Supreme Court on October 6, but that did not happen. It instead asked the presidents of State Associations to file affidavits with the Lodha Committee and the Supreme Court conveying their support to the rewritten MOA, Rules and Regulations.
Some members of the BCCI and legal fraternity are now questioning the existence of the Lodha Committee with the first two timelines having lapsed without any significant action taken by the BCCI and its full members.
On August 9, 2016, the Committee comprising R.M. Lodha, former Chief Justice of India, Ashok Bhan, former Judge, Supreme Court of India, R.V.Raveendran, former Judge, Supreme Court of India, served the first list of timeliness for the BCCI to adopt the committee-drafted and the apex-court approved MOA, Rules and Regulations and State Associations to amend constitutions.MOA, Rules and Regulations and bylaws to bring them in terms with the Reforms in cricket and the Judgment.
The BCCI and its full members were given a timeline of September 30 for adopting the MOA, Rules and Regulations, but only VCA and TCA have followed the Supreme Court order. The first timeline also included among others (1) determine the order of rotation for recognition as full member between Maharashtra, Gujarat and Vidarbha in Maharashtra and between Gujarat, Saurashtra and Baroda in Gujarat (2) to draw a policy for fund disbursements among members (3) amendments to the IPL code of conduct for players and team officials, anti-corruption code for participants, anti-racism code for players and officials and operational rules (4) steering committee to be notified and to commence creation of the Cricket Players’Association with financial support of the BCCI (5) transparency of member associations. The second list of timelines for implementation would have led to the creation of a new BCCI on December 15.
People in the know of things believe that in the event of any outcome other than a judicial action for implementing the recommendations may precipitate a situation wherein the Lodha Committee may cease to exist.
