‘Supreme Court gave BCCI a lifeline’
NEWDELHI: Vinod Rai, who heads the Committee of Administrators (COA) for the BCCI, has said that it’s the Supreme Court and not the ad-hoc body that has given the cricket body a ‘lifeline’ when it came to implementing reforms suggested by the Lodha panel.
“I do understand Justice Lodha’s concern. Actually, it is the Supreme Court that has given them a lifeline. In the fourth status report, the COA pointed out that the office bearers were creating obstacles and had failed to get the BCCI to pass the new draft constitution that mandate the Lodha Committee recommendations,” Rai was quoted as saying in an interview to espncricinfo.com. He was reacting to an interview published in Hindustan Times last week where Justice RM Lodha had blamed the COA for allowing BCCI a lifeline.
“The court warned the office bearers of contempt, made them appear in the court and then asked them to give their suggestions on making any amendments to the draft constitution. Now, where is the question of the COA offering a lifeline to the office bearers? In fact, I have already asked the court to remove the office bearers and impose Article 142 under the Constitution and issue direction to the Registrar of the Tamil Nadu government to register new BCCI constitution.”
Rai also said that the committee had suggested replacements for Ramachandra Guha and Vikram Limaye --- who left the committee earlier this year --- to the Supreme Court three months back in a sealed envelope but there has been no progress.
Meanwhile, Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing drew a blank with the amicus curiae Gopal Subramaniam saying BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry threatened CFO Santosh Rangnekar. Chaudhry denied that saying, “The charges are frivolous and I deny them.”
ISPL’S CLAIMS
The organisers of the ISPL, to be played in November 2018 in Dubai, say that BCCI’S instructions were for players registered with the body. In a statement in October, BCCI had said: “It has come to our attention that certain T20 cricket matches, series, tournaments and/or camps are being conducted by leagues under the names of Indian Junior Players League (IJPL) and Junior India Player League/junior Indian League (JIPL).
“Please note that any player registered with the BCCI knowingly participating, representing or associating himself/herself with IJPL and JIPL in any manner is doing so without the consent of BCCI would be doing so in violation of the BCCI Rules and Regulations.”
Though all top level age-group players are registered with their respective state associations, the ISPL organisers feel that this tournament will give a chance to those who could not make it to Bcci-sanctioned events. “BCCI never said anything on hosting private cricket tournaments,” Sampat Rai, one of the directors of ISPL, told Hindustan Times.
In its inaugural version the ISPL was called Indian Junior Players League. The organisers insisted that the change of name was done as School Games Federation of India (SGFI) came on board and not because BCCI released a statement on the IJPL.