BCCI President Anurag Thakur faces perjury charges

The President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Mr. Anurag Thakur, has landed in hot waters. In the recent Supreme Court hearing, the court said that Thakur was guilty of perjury charges labelled against him. Apparently, the apex court believed that Thakur committed the perjury when he tried requesting the International Cricket Council (ICC) for an intervention letter in regard to the Lodha committee.

The BCCI President now faces a severe crisis. He is not only in a position to lose his coveted post in the BCCI but also, if found guilty, will have to face the legal court actions. During the Supreme Court hearing on Thursday, the panel of Judges headed by Gopal Subramanium discussed the issues pertaining to the ongoing tiff between the Lodha reforms and the BCCI.

The Lodha panel had suggested the appointment of GK Pillai, the former Home Secretary of India, as the Observer of the BCCI. His role would have been to ensure a clean and transparent functioning of the BCCI headed by CEO Rahul Johri. The panel of judges has now asked the board to list the names of possible replacements for all top posts in the BCCI administration. The Court was strict in asking the BCCI counsel Mr. Kapil Sibal about his stance on Anurag Thakur.

The court mention how can the board trusts a person who has been creating obstructions at every stage. “At every stage your client has played an obstructive role. Should he really be the person holding this post? Should the entire board be removed for non compliance,” asked the Chief Justice. Also, the apex court mentioned that the board and its top officials need to apologize in order to escape from serious punishment.

“You ought to absolutely apologize if you want to escape. These kind of things don’t help. Please don’t force us. You go to ICC and ask for a letter so that you can return to say BCCI will be out of ICC. The whole object was to stop the court. This seems to be lucrative business and everyone wants to go on even after 70 years,” the court added. Earlier, during the October 7 hearing, Anurag Thakur had filed an affidavit explaining his conversations with the ICC chairman Shashank Manohar.

“I am filing this affidavit pursuant to the order dated 7 October, passed by this court, on whether I had asked the ICC CEO to state that the appointment of Justice Lodha Committee was tantamount to government interference in the working of the BCCI. At the outset, it is denied that any such request was put forth by me to the CEO of the ICC,” the affidavit from Thakur mentioned.

As per the rules, if the government intervenes in the functioning of the cricket board, the ICC is bound to suspend the board. Apparently, the court believes that Thakur had requested ICC to interfere in the matter to suggest a government interference in BCCI and subsequently threaten to boycott the BCCI. This, in return, would have given the BCCI a strong case to oppose the Lodha reforms.

“I pointed out to chairman Shashank Manohar that when he was BCCI president he had taken a view that the recommendations of Justice Lodha committee appointing the nominee of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on apex council would amount to governmental interference and might invoke an action of suspension from ICC; therefore requested him that being the ICC Chairman can a letter be issued clarifying the position which he had taken as BCCI President,” Anurag Thakur had further said in his affidavit.

Much to the support of the BCCI President, the ICC Chairman denied that any such request was made to him.