Justice Lodha Committee submits report to Supreme Court, BCCI on alert

The Justice Lodha Committee into IPL match fixing has submitted its report to the Supreme Court on Monday.

While the three-member committee comprising Justice (Retd) RM Lodha, Justice (Retd) Ashok Bhan and Justice (Retd) RV Raveendran is set to submit their report to the Supreme Court, the BCCI is keenly watching the proceedings as to whether the apex court makes the recommendations binding or not.

There are reports in some quarters that the panel may recommend that politicians should not be part of the Board which is run as a society registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. The executive functionaries are all honorary office-bearers with most of the top state cricket associations being run by either a politician, or a bureaucrat or a heavyweight industrialist.

Barring former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who is the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president and Dilip Vengsarkar, vice-president of Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), none of the top cricketers are running the show in state units.

The second contentious issue that probably will be dealt with in the report is the 'Conflict of Interest'. The committee may also suggest making IPL a separate private limited company under section-8 which has to reinvest all its profits.

Among the major points on governance structure, it needs to be seen if the all-powerful working committee may be done away with suggestions about having a paid Board of Directors. The most contentious issue would be the committee's recommendations on politicians, who occupy top positions in the Board.