The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) has recommended immediate removal of the present BCCI office-bearers so that “the persons who are consciously guilty of non-compliance of the recommendations passed by the Hon’ble Justice Lodha Committee, as well as the orders passed by this Hon’ble Court, are disabled from benefitting from their conscious non-compliance and, in particular, do not get the benefit of an extended tenure because of such non-compliance”.
This non-compliance is about the historic reforms recommended by the Lodha Committee in its report submitted with the Supreme Court and which many BCCI officials are resisting.
In a strongly-worded seventh Status Report, submitted with the Supreme Court, the CoA has stated that all three current Board office-bearers completed their three-year term on March 1, and so there is an urgent need to convene the annual general body meeting of the world’s richest cricket body to elect new office-bearers.
The two-member CoA (the other member being former India women’s captain Diana Edulji), headed by former CAG Vinod Rai, pointed out that as per the existing BCCI constitution, an office-bearer and the five vice-presidents could have a maximum of a three-year term. The current office-bearers are CK Khanna (acting president), Amitabh Choudhary (acting secretary) and Aniruddh Chaudhry (treasurer). While Aniruddh was re-elected at the AGM held on March 2, 2015, Khanna and Amitabh were elevated by virtue of sacking of president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke by the Supreme Court.
The CoA has also recommended removal of IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla, as he too has overshot his tenure. The IPL chairman’s tenure is of one year only. Shukla was elected on November 9, 2015. But he continued as at the next AGM, held on September 21, 2016, it was decided that almost all standing committees of the BCCI would continue for another year. The CoA also wants all the standing committees to be re-elected.
The CoA has made four prayers in its Status Report, which runs into 174 pages, even though the new draft BCCI constitution is yet to be accepted by the Supreme Court. The first prayer is for convening the 88th AGM, the second is for appointment of an electoral officer for the AGM, the third is for elections to be held at the AGM, and the last is the customary “passing such other or further orders as this Hon’ble Court deems appropriate in the facts and circumstances”.
As a result of the AGM being delayed inordinately, the audited accounts for the year 2016-17 haven’t been passed as that is the prerogative of the BCCI general body.
It is to be noted that only a handful of BCCI affiliated associations, which are also the electorate of the Board, have submitted affidavits in the Supreme Court vowing to implement the Lodha Committee recommendations. A majority of the associations are still resisting the reforms.
The biggest bone of contention is the BCCI constitution in the making which, when implemented, could change the way cricket is governed in India, bringing in transparency and accountability. Although the opposition to the reforms in the BCCI has dwindled a bit, the current office-bearers and the associations are opposing certain provisions of these reforms. And they are also angry with the CoA on some other personal issues. Essentially, it is a fight to control the game in the country.
