BCCI ‘Special Meet’ a Damp Squib, Just Delaying The Inevitable

The action now shifts to the Supreme Court where the matter could finally be decided

The BCCI has for now bought time in implementing the Lodha Panel recommendations. By empowering their President and Secretary, the BCCI have ensured that for now the heat is off the officialdom. But it won’t be long before the battle resumes in the Supreme Court.

When Anurag Thakur files an affidavit it will lead to more rounds of discussion in the Supreme Court. But essentially the three clear sticking points for the BCCI in the Lodha Panel report are:

a) No official above 70 being part of the BCCI
b) Government Ministers being barred
c) One state one vote

All the three points affect various office-bearers across the board. What it also does is puts a lot of influencial people out of roles in the BCCI. The rule to bar those above 70, currently affects a number of BCCI honchos. Incidentally they are all mostly politicians who have or can be ministers. The most prominent amongst them are Farooq Abdullah and Sharad Pawar.

The easier part is to induct cricketers into various committees. For that just the names have to be added. But the difficult part is to let go of control That is the reason why the BCCI have bought time. If they had summarily accepted all the recommendations they would have let go of an opportunity to retain power.

Look at the rule where each state can have one vote. The BCCI officials point to history of the organisation to justify the rejection of the rule. West Zone for example has six votes from just two states-Gujarat and Maharashtra-. But what justifies Cricket Club of India (CCI), a non-playing member, having a full member vote? Also similar is the case in the East with National Cricket Club (NCC) having full voting rights without ever being close to becoming a Ranji Trophy team.

The BCCI is completely opposed to the Players Association, so that is another sticking point in the Lodha report. Any Players Association has traditionally been viewed as Trade Union. No wonder it has been crushed thrice in 1978, 1989 and 2002. The appointment of professional managers to manage the affairs of BCCI has already been actioned. It remains to be seen who is appointed CEO and CFO of the BCCI after a head-hunting operation. The tougher aspect is letting go of the all powerful working committee and instead having a nine member apex council. The Lodha panel envisages equal participation of the honorary set-up and the management staff.

The BCCI can no longer be closed to the idea of a change, in fact it has to lead the way in reforming sports bodies in India. After all they do pride in being the best in the nation by almost a country mile!