It is surprising that the board approached SC seeking release of funds for a unit like SCA whose own president Niranjan Shah has categorically denied any financial crunch before the Test.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had asked Supreme Court to release money to conduct the Test series against England starting on Wednesday, but instead, it got a set of auditors and administrative staff to deal with all the cricketing activities in India.
In simple words, BCCI cannot go out in public and say that matches can get affected because Rs 58.66 lakh has been released for the Rajkot Test. This, too, has a catch. In stead of giving it to the hosts Saurashtra Cricket Association, the bench headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur made it clear that the BCCI should not pay a farthing to member cricket associations of states, who have till date refused to comply with its orders of October 21, where the series is going to be held.BCCI earlier moved the letter saying that "match would be cancelled if funds were not released".
"If funds are not released, there won't be a cricket match tomorrow, it may be cancelled," BCCI senior counsel Kapil Sibal had earlier told court.The court, after hearing amicus curiae Gopal Subramaniam, passed an order empowering the Lodha panel to engage top level administrative and secretarial staff whose expenses have to be borne by the BCCI. Not stopping there, the BCCI was told to produce the accounts showing expenses incurred and the panel may disburse the funds directly to the parties involved.
The latest move has reduced the board to a mere spectator, and it has no financial or administrative control over cricket in India. Subramaniam also argued that as per the SC order on October 21, funds can't be released because BCCI and state boards have so far not complied with orders.
It is surprising that the board approached SC seeking release of funds for a unit like SCA whose own president Niranjan Shah has categorically denied any financial crunch before the Test.
Take Delhi & District Cricket Association for instance, where retired Justice Mukul Mudgal was given charge some 11 months back by Delhi High Court to conduct all international matches. Going by the records kept by Justice Mudgal panel, "no money was sought from BCCI before any of the matches held during these 11 months". BCCI as usual kept releasing money after matches, even though some are still pending.
A source from Mudgal panel said, "Even in a corrupt association like DDCA, where account sheets of last three years are not found in Kotla premises, matches during last 11 months were conducted without taking a single penny in advance from BCCI."
"BCCI, however, paid us money for conducting World Cup matches along with some others. But we still have to get Rs 1.5 crore for conducting last game along with the subvention money from the board," added the source.
December 5 looming
The new move on the eve of the series came as an "additional opportunity" to comply with the orders of reforms.
Focus will now be on how BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke will submit in their compliance report on December 3. Looking at the manner in which the court has taken first few steps of putting administrators to look over all the BCCI transactions, the next hearing on December 5 could well see some extreme steps in order to make fall BCCI in line.
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