Mumbai Cricket Association to take stock of Lodha panel recommendations next week

In their defence, a number of representations were apparently made by senior BCCI officials to the panel expressing the inevitability of former cricketers needing to hold multiple positions to make a decent living after retirement.

While suggesting the legalisation of cricket betting – the report’s highlight – the panel cited global practice and the huge worldwide betting market.

“…Since the BCCI performs public functions, people have the right to know the functions and facilities and other activities of the BCCI and therefore in our opinion whether RTI Act is applicable to BCCI or BCCI is amenable to RTI is sub-judice”. Currently, BCCI comes under Societies Act and is not answerable to the government.

Lodha Committee recommends relegation of Railways, Services and Universities as Associate members. They will also choose the support staff and selection will no longer be ratified by the president.

The panel noted that the last couple of decades have shown a far murkier side of cricket – that of match fixing – with instances of players from South Africa to Pakistan involved in influencing the outcome of a game for profit.

The recommendations of the three-member committee led by Justice (Retd) RM Lodha, Justice (Retd) Ashok Bhan and Justice (Retd) RV Raveendran in its report on restructuring of the BCCI has come at the right time with the right goal of cleaning Indian sports of unprofessional interference and corruption.

Manohar, also the current International Cricket Council chairman, has gone hard after the vexed issue of conflict of interests and has made sure any expenditure above 2.5 million rupees ($37,574.21) is put up on the board’s website.

Take the radical “one member, one vote” suggestion for a start where the committee proposes that if a state (like Maharashtra or Gujarat) has three associations, one of them will have full voting rights, while the other two will be relegated to associate members. “The BCCI and its members will have to now run as companies do, with specific responsibilities placed on full-time professionals with established skill sets, with reporting systems, high-level IT solutions and no interference from the governors”, the committee said.

If there are sweeping changes suggested which are legally binding, then there could be an administrative shake up just before the marquee ICC World T20. Nevertheless, as drivers of the sport where they are treated as subordinates to administrators, the rise of players can only be welcomed. A top BCCI official told Mint that it may not be practical.

The most prominent example of the aforementioned case is the BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur, who, besides being a two-time MP, is also the President of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA). Similarly late Jagmohan Dalmiya was a businessman and IS Bindra, a bureaucrat. This association shall be assigned functions and will be constituted and run with the financial support of the BCCI.