Dillydallying to implement reforms in Indian board is disappointing
NEWDELHI: It has been close to 18 months since the Supreme Court directed the Indian cricket Board (BCCI) to implement the Justice RM Lodha panel recommendations. But little headway has been made with BCCI and state unit officials refusing to budge and the court battle over implementing the Lodha report continuing. The architect of the reforms, Justice (Retd) RM Lodha, expresses disappointment with the progress in this interview. Excerpts:
It has been 11/2 years since the court verdict. What do you feel about how things have moved?
I am disappointed, especially since the Supreme Court had given a clear verdict. The review petition of the BCCI has been dismissed, so has its curative petition. There should not have been any hindrance, but the dilly-dallying is very disappointing.
Do you think the recommendations were practical?
Of course. We had studied the laws that govern BCCI and all its member associations and come to this conclusion. Interestingly, the ICC has recently restructured its constitution in a way very similar to how we wanted the BCCI to be. They brought in a woman representative (process on to find an independent woman director), introduced one-member, onevote policy, etc. If ICC can make such changes, why can’t BCCI?
Do you think the Committee of Administrators has done enough?
The Committee of Administrators should have straightaway gone to the Registrar of Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, under which the BCCI is registered, to ring in the changes. After all, CoA had with it the SC verdict, which said the board needs a complete overhaul. By not doing so, they have given a lifeline to the board officials who aren’t willing to leave their posts and (are instead) coming up with bogeys to delay the implementation. The CoA should have taken a firm step at the start.
Is CoA capable of carrying out reforms?
It was a four-member panel initially but for the past few months, the strength has dwindled with the exit of Ramchandra Guha and Vikram Limaye. Vinod Rai is alone up there and probably finding it tough to take strong calls. Having more heads is much better than having one. The Court should have immediately restored the strength of the CoA so that Rai’s task could have become easier.
Is it a case of too many cooks?
You see, there are two power structures in BCCI and that is making it tough to implement the recommendations. There are the BCCI officials and then there is the CoA. There have been differences between them and that is acting as a hindrance. BCCI officials are against the total implementation of reforms.
Recently, Sharad Pawar said Lodha recommendations have messed up cricket.
I read that. But what we wanted is that cricket should be governed properly. We don’t want people to have fiefdoms. If you give someone just three years he will have the added incentive of working honestly in the hope that he gets elected once he returns after the cooling off period. But if you allow people to have a long tenure, there are chances they get lackadaisical.
Like in DDCA?
Yes, in fact in many associations. People have stayed for far too long and even now there have been attempts to bring in the old guard in some position going against the spirit of the court ruling (ex-secretary Niranjan Shah, who is over 70, has been appointed CEO of Saurashtra unit). We’ll find such instances, and we’ll also find instances where relatives of disqualified officials are put at the top. The recommendations seek to minimise that through a complete overhaul.
There are complaints giving Northeastern states equal weightage through the One State, One Vote policy, will cause imbalance as there is no cricket legacy in the region.
That is because there has been no investment in cricket there. Cricket will take time to grow there and what we want is a pan India presence. There is no dearth of talent. Northeast has a rich talent pool in sports and has talented athletes. If you are a good athlete, you’ll do well in all sports.
There is no dearth of talent in that region. Northeast has a rich talent pool in sports and has talented athletes. If you are a good athlete, you’ll do well in all sports.
On empowering NorthEast
Interestingly, the ICC has recently restructured its constitution in a way very similar to how we wanted the BCCI to be. If ICC can make changes, why can’t BCCI?
On ICC’s new constitution