Justice Lodha-led panel suggests sweeping reforms in administration and governance of BCCI in its report to Supreme Court
Suggesting radical changes in the functioning of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Justice RM Lodha-led panel on Monday recommended, among other things, that ministers and government servants should not hold any post in the Board and suggested time limits to office-bearers' tenure.
The panel, appointed by the Supreme Court (SC) last year to make "suitable" suggestions to reform the way BCCI is governed, wrote in its report that office-bearers should have maximum three terms with a cooling off period of three years in each term.
Submitting its 159-page report to the SC, the panel urged the lawmakers to legalise betting – except for match officials and players who are covered under the BCCI and Indian Premier League (IPL) regulations – with strong safeguards. The panel also suggested bringing the cricket body under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act to maintain transparency.
The 15-point report also stated that governance in the BCCI should be separated from management by allowing representatives of players and Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) office in its working committee.
"... the 14 members working committee is replaced by nine member Apex Council consisting of BCCI office bearers, an elected representative of General Body, two representatives of the players association and one nominee from the CAG office. The terms of eligibility and disqualification are specified with a bar on ministers and government servants," the report stated.
Justice Lodha panel, which also comprised Justice (Retd) Ashok Bhan and Justice (Retd) RV Raveendran, further suggested separate governing councils for IPL and BCCI. The chief governing body in the IPL will be known as the governing council, which will comprise nine members. The secretary and the treasurer of the BCCI will be ex-officio members of this council. Two other members of the council will be nominated/elected by the full 30 members. Of the remaining five, two will be the nominees of franchises, one will be a representative of the players association and one will a nominee of the CAG office.
Significantly, the panel also recommended that only one association of each state will be a full member of BCCI with a right to vote. It wanted one cricket association from each state to have equal voting rights while other associations be treated as associate members.
To protect players' interests, the panel was in favour of registration of agents under the prescribed norms administered by BCCI and formation of Players Cricket Association.
For better governance and transparency, the panel recommended three authorities having distinct roles: an ombudsman, an ethics officer and an electoral officer in the functioning of BCCI.
An ombudsman's task will be to resolve the grievance of members, administrators, players as well as disputes in the BCCI. Grievances regarding access to stadiums and ticket-selling process can also be brought before the ombudsman by anyone. The ombudsman should either be a retired SC judge or a former chief justice of a high court. The ethics officer's task will be to administer issues relating to the conflict of interest, misdemeanour and misbehaviour or corruption issues. The ethics officer would be a former high court judge.
The electoral officer will oversee the entire BCCI election process relating to the office-bearers, namely preparation of voters list, publication and disputes over eligibility of the office bearers.
The electoral officer will be nominated at least two weeks before the date of election, and he/she should be a former election commissioner of India.
Raman gets clean chit 'due to lack of evidence'
In a separate report on the allegations of role of former IPL CEO Sundar Raman in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal, the Lodha panel absolved him, saying "due to lack of evidence, the allegations failed." Besides suggesting reforms in the BCCI, the SC had also instructed the Lodha panel to investigate whether Raman had done any wrong in the spot-fixing scandal. The panel had, in July last year, banned Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan and Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra for life from all cricketing activities and also suspended the two franchises for two years.
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