The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) long-standing dispute with the Lodha Committee reached fever pitch on Monday, with the Supreme Court ordering the removal of board president Anurag Thakur and Secretary Ajay Shirke for being defiant and stalling on the reforms recommended by the panel. The Court also issued a contempt notice to Anurag Thakur for perjury.

“The Supreme Court passes an order directing the BCCI president and secretary to desist from any board functions from hereon,” said the ruling.

The order comes after judges also slapped restrictions on the BCCI’s accounts last year over its failure to implement a series of reforms recommended by a panel headed by a former top judge, Rajendra Mal Lodha.

Responding to the latest judgement, Lodha said that it was an inevitable consequence of the board’s foot-dragging.

“One should understand that when the order of the Supreme Court, which is the highest court of the land, has come, it has to be obeyed by all. It is the law of the land. Nobody can escape it,” Lodha told reporters. “There were obstructions. There were impediments. We fixed the timeline that was not adhered to. We submitted three reports before the Supreme Court, even then it was not implemented.”

Earlier, the apex court had told the BCCI to “fall in line or we will make you fall in line”, after its continued reluctance over implementing the Lodha recommendations. The main points of discord between the two parties have been the age cap of 70 years on administrators, cooling off period of three years between terms, and the one state one vote policy, which were recommended by the SC-appointed panel. The BCCI had said that it had accepted most of the recommendations of the Lodha panel, but put the rejection of the few recommendations down to the disagreement of the state associations over it.

Plan B in place

Knowing well the fate of BCCI and state associations, all senior office-bearers have already met several times over the last two months to ensure that a Plan B is firmly in place in almost all the associations.

The basic objections of BCCI against some Lodha panel recommendations include “age cap of 70, cooling off period of three years between terms and one state one vote policy”.

As many as six state associations have confirmed to DNA that it is ready to have new bosses of its own choice as and when it are forced to implement orders.

“Lodha panel can only force us to amend constitution and install new office-bearers. But it cannot remove our district units and voting members who are firmly behind us,” said a senior official from Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association.

The situation in Haryana – where the family of Anirudh Chaudhry has been ruling for around four decades – or Punjab where MP Pandove is at the helm since 1976, are the same.

It would be interesting to see whether the SC-appointed administrators will try and address these issues.

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