DNA Edit: Restoring credibility to the gentleman’s game
The irony for the world’s richest Board is that it has decided to accept all fourth umpire’s calls related to the Decision Review System (DRS) for its on-field players, but not anything similar from the Justice Lodha panel — which is also empowered by the court to make changes to the BCCI — outside ground.
This could well be termed as mother of all sporting battles in India. The appointment of the Justice R.M. Lodha panel has called for the sacking of an entire BCCI officialdom and replacing it with former Home Secretary G.K. Pillai to oversee implementation of Supreme Court orders could well direct the course of Indian cricket in the future. The period between the October 18 interim orders of the SC on the BCCI’s implementation and possibly the conclusive hearing on December 5 can well be described as the prelude to an epic battle.
The irony for the world’s richest Board is that it has decided to accept all fourth umpire’s calls related to the Decision Review System (DRS) for its on-field players, but not anything similar from the Justice Lodha panel — which is also empowered by the court to make changes to the BCCI — outside ground.
There is no doubt that the SC and the Lodha panel have done a commendable job in tackling corruption and conflict of interest which had thrown cricket into disrepute following the Indian Premier League spot-fixing allegations in 2013. But the unfortunate part of this entire saga is that now Board Secretary Ajay Shirke, who resigned aftermath of IPL scandal in 2013 citing high moral grounds, has decided to oppose all Lodha reforms in order to save his own chair both in BCCI and Maharashtra. The case of president Anurag Thakur is even more curious. In the name of saving cricket, he has even resorted to calls of jeopardising ongoing India-England series and domestic matches. Though his war cries that hardly made an impact on the cricket lovers across the country, it has resulted in weakening the position of BCCI at the world level.
That’s why ICC, run by Thakur’s bête noire Shashank Manohar, for the second successive time has not invited BCCI for its Executive Board meet in Adelaide. The erstwhile cricketing super powers like England and Australia feel that this is the right time to whittle down India’s influence since the BCCI is on the back foot vis-a-vis the Supreme Court orders.
It is high time that the SC accepts Justice Lodha’s request to appoint an administrator of solid integrity such as Pillai, to sort out the current mess. Otherwise, BCCI will keep picking selective state players to represent Team India. Or manipulating its elections with the help of multiple voting of states like Gujarat and Maharashtra. And last, but not the least, the few chosen ones in BCCI will keep milking the cash-rich body for decades and decades in the name of some unfair and outdated rules and regulations. It’s high time that rule of law is restored along with the credibility of gentleman’s game.