Lodha reforms: BCCI split seen
MUMBAI: Eleven state cricket units met in Mumbai on Thursday to discuss ways to implement the Lodha Committee recommendations. It was an unofficial meeting initiated by an office-bearer and an IPL official, it is learnt.
Experts feel it is a sign BCCI is divided between those ready to implement the reforms and those opposed to it. The North Zone block kept away.
The issue has been stuck for nearly 18 months. Currently, the SC-appointed Committee of Administrators is the final authority in BCCI. The next court hearing is on January 16.
“It was a very good meeting, it was about how to implement Lodha reforms as fast as possible,” said a West Zone member. Rajeev Shukla, IPL chairman, didn’t attend but a senior Uttar Pradesh association official did.
The group felt implementing the reforms will help them return to power. “We’ve agreed to adopt 85 per cent of the recommendations. All those present will go back to their associations and write to the (BCCI) secretary, who will take it up further,” said a senior South Zone official adding, “Our reservations are mainly on four points: One state, one vote; jurisdiction of the officebearers; formation of the Apex council and cooling-off period. We are fine with the rest, including the 70-year age cap and the nine-year tenure.”
The other BCCI group is not amused. It sees it as an attempt by Shukla and acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary to create a leadership vacuum and benefit from it. “Among the 11, there were only five with authority to vote. For me, it was a futile exercise,” an official from the group said.
After Maharashtra and Vidarbha, the Mumbai association is also close to implementing the Lodha reforms. The MCA managing committee will meet on January 16 to pass it and then place it before SGM for a vote.
PTIADDS: The BCCI paid former national selector Jatin Paranjape Rs 43.20 lakh in December as professional fees from February to September, 2017, despite his having quit as national selector after the Lodha report barred non-Test players.
A senior BCCI official told PTI no rules were flouted and that the contract ran until September.