The Indian cricket board has decided to file affidavits in Supreme Court pointing out anomalies and difficulties in implementing Lodha panel recommendations
Finally, the cat is out of the bag.
Having been able to find no solid ground to take Supreme Court-appointed Justice RM Lodha committee head on, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has apparently decided to take a different route after a brainstorming session during the Special General Body Meeting in Mumbai –asking secretary Anurag Thakur and every state cricket association to file affidavits in the Apex court to state their apprehensions in order to buy precious time before finding some loophole or a way out of this situation.
In fact, Friday was no surprise to anyone following the developments within the BCCI of late after Justice Lodha panel made recommendations on cricket reforms. Having been pushed to the edge, where literally everyone within the board becomes ineligible from contesting elections next time, Friday was only a day to hold hands together to weather this storm.
On the one hand, BCCI has started the process of searching for CEO and CFO to handle its functioning and finances in a more transparent way. On the other hand, it has given full member status to the state of Chhattisgarh, thus ignoring the claims of Bihar.
The most contentious issue for both BCCI and state cricket bodies is age and tenure issue. "If it is implemented, every BCCI or state association member will be jobless," was how a senior BCCI official told dna after coming out of the SGM.
In other words, most of the member associations felt that Justice Lodha panel has passed an order without going into the history of the game. "Mumbai, Vidarbha or Baroda's history in Indian cricket is based on erstwhile central provinces and their contribution to the game of cricket. Why are we trying to wipe out history for just one reason that states – six north east – who do not play or follow cricket should be made full members all of a sudden?" questioned a senior functionary.
dna has also reliably learnt that the Supreme Court observations during the last hearing on February 4, when it talked about re-registering state associations under one umbrella, has brought a kind of "unknown fear" amongst many members.
Bringing age cap on administrators, doing away with the zonal system in electing the president and barring ministers and government servants were the other issues discussed amongst the members in detail.
According to reliable sources, both Sharad Pawar and Shashank Manohar have given clear indications that they are fine with the recommendations. But Saurashtra's Niranjan Shah, who has crossed the age limit of 70, looked in no mood to give it up.
"We will be filing an affidavit in Supreme Court," Shah later told reporters outside SGM venue.
On the question of not holding position simultaneously in both state and BCCI, almost all the state associations have decided to file their apprehensions. And why not? This can see secretary Anurag Thakur, treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary and joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary being stumped out off Lodha panel's straighter one.
On ending the zonal rotation, there seems to be no one policy emerging out of the meeting. Being North Zone's turn next, under rotation policy, Thakur was keeping his fingers crossed on becoming the next BCCI president with the help of BJP-ruled states. With Chhattisgarh now getting voting right, it would only have helped him achieving his goal.
It has also been learnt that Delhi's primary concern was to somehow protect the proxy system in the DDCA. Last but not the least, BCCI will file objections to Lodha's suggestion to have advertisement breaks only during lunch or tea intervals during international matches, which could result in an approximately losses of over Rs 1,500 crore.
Verma cries foul
Meanwhile, Cricket Association of Bihar's (CAB) secretary Aditya Verma has cried foul over BCCI's decision to give associate membership to Lalu Prasad Yadav's Bihar Cricket Association (BCA).
This, he says, is because "BCCI has not followed any guidelines for recognition of a cricket association".
It must be mentioned that CAB is the only cricket body in Bihar that has been running cricket activities for the last several years. In fact, it was Thakur and BCCI ex-secretary Sanjay Patel who had filed affidavits in the Hon'ble Supreme Court in a pending case (SLP No. 35160/2013) that Lalu's BCA was defunct.
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