BCCI opposition to Lodha reforms continues

At the conclusion of an emergency meeting in Delhi on Sunday, the BCCI said its members have cited "practical difficulties" as the reason for not implementing all the recommendations of the Lodha Committee.

The top brass of the BCCI as well as heads of various state associations said nothing had changed in their stance since the special general meeting on October 1. At the SGM, the BCCI had decided to selectively adopt the Lodha Committee recommendations, thus defaulting on the Supreme Court order from July 18, which had mandated the board to adopt all the reforms.

A prominent BCCI office bearer said that its senior lawyer Kapil Sibal would, at the next hearing on October 17, argue that without a two-third majority the board could not enforce a diktat on its members to adopt the reforms. During the hearings last week, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had asked the BCCI to "unconditionally" accept the reforms and not "precipitate" the matter. The board's emergency meeting in Delhi was a reaction to this, and was attended by all of its Full Members.

"Our lawyers will put forward all our reservations and practical difficulties concerning implementing certain recommendations one by one on Monday," the senior office bearer said. "We are confident that the court will allow us to present our arguments, after which we will decide the future course of action."

This office bearer also said BCCI president Anurag Thakur would file the personal affidavit that the court had asked of him on Monday. Thakur was asked to clarify whether he had sought ICC intervention against the implementation of the Lodha Committee's recommendations, as ICC chief executive David Richardson had said last month.

The BCCI's emergency meeting on Sunday was about finding clarity regarding their next course of action. Both the board and its state associations need a two-third majority to pass any resolution.

"The meeting was convened by BCCI to be more transparent and offer more clarity. We already had taken a stance at the SGM recently to stay together and today it was the case of just taking that forward," a secretary of a West Zone state association said.

The members also supported the board's stance of taking the court on. "Why is the Supreme Court bothered about such a successful organisation like BCCI. It has been good to so many people, has developed such a successful product. It is not the court's area," the secretary of the state association said.

In an attempt to up the ante, the court passed an interim order on October 7 stating the BCCI stop all funds to the state associations until they submit a resolution in writing to the court and the Lodha Committee about adopting all the reforms in toto.