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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The Supreme Court on Friday barred the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from releasing any funds to its state affiliates until they give an unconditional undertaking that they wil comply with the organisational reforms as recommended by the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur also said that the state associations of the BCCI will not disburse the funds already given to them by the country’s apex cricketing body till they file an unconditional undertaking that they will implement the Lodha Committee recommendations.

Anurag was elected BCCI president on May 22, 2016

The court has asked BCCI President Anurag Thakur to file a personal afidavit stating whether he has written to International Cricket Council (ICC) Chairman David Richardson, asking the game’s world governing body to take a stand that the Supreme Court judgement and the Lodha Committee recommendations would amount to government interference in the afairs of the BCCI.

The BCCI has already disbursed funds to 17 state units. Around 13 state units are yet to receive any funds from the BCCI and the apex court has stated that the board must not disburse any money to them until they give an undertaking that they will abide by the directives of the Lodha panel.

The Supreme Court had lashed out at the BCCI last week, warning that the board will be forced to comply with the Lodha panel verdict if they did not implement the suggested changes by October 6.

On Thursday, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing on behalf of the BCCI, has pleaded before the court that it would be difficult for the BCCI to give an unconditional undertaking by Friday that it will hold back the funding of its state affiliates who would resist organisational reforms.

In response the bench of Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had asserted that it would pass an order to that effect on Friday.

In an indication of the possible future course, the court in the course of Thursday’s hearing had indicated that it had two options — one to appoint a panel of administrators to oversee the transition in BCCI or ask the Lodha Committee to do it.

The bench said the Lodha Committee could give more time to the country’s apex cricketing body to carry out the recommendations or appoint a panel of administrators to effect the transition to new reformed order.

Last week, the BCCI’s special general meeting (SGM) had decided to accept some of the recommendations put forward by the Lodha Committee although they continued to resist the order regarding the removal of the BCCI top brass.

The SGM had also decided to form an apex council to look into the working of the BCCI as per the report submitted by the Lodha panel to the apex court. The representative of Comptroller and Auditor General will also be included as a member of the apex council as well as the Indian Premier League (IPL) governing council.

Apart from the formation of the apex council, some of the other significant decisions at the meeting were formation of a special committee for the differently abled and a committee for women’s cricket.

The formation of the players’ association and their representation in the committee was also agreed upon. The SGM authorised the BCCI CEO to contact the steering committee as proposed by the Lodha Committee and commence the formation of the cricket players association.

The members were also unanimous in giving voting rights to associate members as per the guidelines of the International Cricket Committee (ICC). Puducherry will also to be granted associate membership of the BCCI.

The SGM also accepted guidelines regarding code of conduct for players and team officials, anti-doping code, anti-racism code, anti-corruption code and operational rules as suggested by the Lodha Committee for implementation for the next IPL season.

The stipulation that there must be a 15-day gap before and after the Indian Premier League (IPL) has also been contested by the BCCI.

The BCCI had warned that the Indian team may have to pull out of the Champions Trophy or next year’s IPL may have to abandoned if the recommendations by the Lodha panel are fully implemented.

The BCCI had also reacted dramatically to the Lodha Committee’s direction to banks to freeze its accounts, threatening to call off the remaining matches of New Zealand’s ongoing tour of India.

BCCI President Anurag Thakur has asserted that it may not be possible to hold the rest of the matches in the series, including one Test and five one-day matches as he is unable to withdraw any money since the banks have frozen their accounts completely.

Justice Lodha had however, criticised the BCCI’s stand, asserting that the panel has directed that enough funds should be available to conduct the daily administrative activities of the board and there is no question of discontinuing the New Zealand series.