Lodha committee suggests path-breaking steps for BCCI clean-up

Laying down new criteria to be elected as an office-bearer with The Board of Control for Cricket in India, the Lodha Committee on Monday recommended that no minister or government servant can be elected to the cricket board. The three-member Lodha panel has recommended sweeping changes to the BCCI’s administrative and governance structures in its report submitted to the Supreme Court.

The recommendations, presented to the Supreme Court, start from the top, with clear and stringent eligibility criteria for the board’s office-bearers and limits to their time in office, and run right through Indian cricket. If implemented these have the potential to be game changing not just for cricket administration but also for governance of other sports.

“As regards the office bearers of BCCI – president, VP, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer – certain eligibility criteria has been fixed. He must be an Indian, he must not be above age of 70, he must not be insolvent, he must not be a minister or government servant, and who has not held office in the BCCI for a cumulative period for nine years,” said Justice Lodha.

He added that each office bearer will have a tenure of three years and no office bearer can hold the office for more than three terms with the rider that there will be a cooling off after each term – in other words, no office bearer can hold terms consecutively in total, and never two terms consecutively to account for a ‘cooling period.’

The committee also proposed that IPL and the BCCI should have separate governing bodies, along with a host of other recommendations for the governance of BCCI to the Supreme Court. The committee also said that board officials could be restricted to just two terms in office. The three-member committee comprised of Justice (Retd) RM Lodha, Justice (Retd) Ashok Bhan and Justice (Retd) RV Raveendran.

“Some of the things we discussed with Shashank Manohar, he immediately put those into action. First thing we did was interact with BCCI officials — all except the President and Secretary appeared (both responded to questionnaire).” Justice Lodha said in the press conference, adding that a lot of former India captains were also provided with an opportunity to respond to the questionnaire.

Key points of the reforms suggested by Justice Lodha and his committee:

1. Bringing the BCCI under the RTI Act

2. Suggestion to the legislature for legalising betting with inbuilt mechanism

3. Proposal to constitute players’ association, which will be formed by a steering committee involving Anil Kumble, Mohinder Amaranth and Diana Edulji

4. De-linking the BCCI and IPL. Separate governing bodies for both.

5. The chief governing body of IPL will be known as the Governing Council, comprising of 9 members, including representatives of franchises (2), players’ association (1) and Comptroller and Auditor General’s office (1). Limited autonomy for the IPL Governing Council which will remain answerable to the BCCI General Body.

6. Clean chit to former IPL COO Sundar Raman with no sufficient evidence against him in the spot-fixing scandal.

7. Ministers or government servants can’t be office-bearers of the BCCI, can’t hold more than two terms in office and must not be over 70 years of age.

8. Members of the selection committee can only be those who have played Test cricket

9. Cricketing matters to be handled by cricketers only, including the selection of teams and coaching.

10. One state to have only one association that will be a full member of the BCCI and have a right to vote.

11. Proposal to appoint an Ethics Officer to handle conflict of interest issues and an Electoral Officer, which will be a former Election Commissioner, to hold BCCI elections.

12. Three other authorities for BCCI: Ombudsman, Ethics Officer, Electoral Officer