SC grants BCCI six months to implement Lodha committee recommendations

The Supreme Court of India has accepted most of the Lodha Committee recommendations covering wide-ranging aspects of the game in India, with emphasis on the governance structure and administration of BCCI and the issues of transparency.

The Supreme Court has given the board 6 months to implement the recommendations and appointed RM Lodha, who the former chief justice of India to oversee the transition. TS Thakur, Chief Justice of India, and Justice Ibrahim Kalifulla who have been hearing the case since January this year delivered the order.

Justice Lodha said that he hopes that it will have a positive influence in Indian cricket. “Great day for Indian cricket and Indian sport, think cricket fans should rejoice the verdict of SC,” he told ANI.

One of the most important recommendations announced by the Lodha Committee in January this year were aimed at transforming the entire power structure in the board. It wanted to change BCCI’s electorate to one association per state.

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The “cooling-off” period:

The Lodha Committee had also recommended that there should be five elected office-bearers – president, secretary, one vice-president, treasurer and joint secretary. All of them would serve a maximum of 3 terms of 9 years each across positions and they can’t serve for two consecutive terms as they must be broken by a “cooling-off” period.

President’s powers also had some changes as he cannot have a say in the team selection and no longer has an additional vote at meetings. BCCI’s Working Committee will be replaced with a nine-member Apex Council with representatives from players including one woman.

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The panel comprising of Justice Lodha and retired Supreme Court judges, Ashok Bhan and R Raveendran was formed in January 2015 to determine the punishments for Raj Kundra, Gurunath Meiyappan, and their respective franchises; decide on Raman’s role in the IPL 2013 scandal and to suggest changes to BCCI’s functionality.