Two of the country’s most powerful cricket administrators have been removed by India’s Supreme Court for refusing to introduce reforms recommended by the Lodha Committee.
With India’s growing economy, and billions of dollars flowing in from sponsorships, India’s cricket board is one of the most powerful in the international game.
What Happened?
Lodha was appointed in early 2015 to head up a committee to reform the running of Indian cricket in the wake of the Indian Premier League (IPL) corruption scandal.
The committee made a number of wide-sweeping recommendations. Key directives are one-man, one-post, one-state, one-vote, age limit of 70 years, and appointment of Apex panel to run administration, turn five-man selection panel to a three-member committee, appointment of a CEO to take day-to-day running off the board out of the hands of office-bearers.
On April 14, 2016, Lodha panel sent 82 questions to BCCI, asking to explain how it runs cricket in India.
However, the BCCI did not carry out all the reforms, despite an order from the Supreme Court in July last year that the BCCI was bound to make the recommend changes, culminating in Monday’s court order to remove the top officials.
The court said it would appoint a new committee later this month to run the BCCI’s business operations and that all office bearers would have to provide an undertaking that they would carry through the reforms recommended by former chief justice R M Lodha or “demit the post and cease to be office bearers.”
