SC chokes BCCI’s fund flow

Orders state units to comply with Lodha reforms

NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will have to open up its accounts to an independent auditor that will also oversee the award of contracts and rights worth millions of rupees, the Supreme Court ordered on Friday.

Besides curtailing the financial powers of the world’s richest cricket body, the court also asked the BCCI not to give funds to its state affiliates till it implements root-to-branch reforms recommended by the Justice RM Lodha committee, appointed after the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal.

The panel recommended sweeping administrative reforms for cricket in the country, and the top court wants the BCCI to implement them.

A bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur said the BCCI cannot award contracts above a monetary ceiling fixed by the Lodha panel, and ordered the appointment of an independent auditor to audit the board’s income and expenditure.

The cricket board must grant the auditors full access to records, accounts and other information. Also, the court asked BCCI chief Anurag Thakur to comply with the recommendations, and ordered that the board will need the committee’s approval to award contracts above a ceiling.

Thakur was reprimanded for asking International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Shashank Manohar to give his views on the inclusion of a nominee from the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) into the board’s apex council.

The bench noted that the BCCI chief made an “effort to create a record to question the legitimacy of the recommendation of the committee for the appointment of a CAG nominee”.