LODHA COMMITTEE SETS DECEMBER 30 DEADLINE FOR BCCI REFORMS

THE BCCI has to hold elections for the Apex Council, which is set to replace the board’s highest-decision making body, its working committee, and conduct its AGM by December 15. According to a second set of deadlines finalised by the Lodha committee at a meeting in Delhi last Sunday, the BCCI also has to form a fresh IPL governing council by December 30. Within the same time frame, and as advocated by the Lodha reforms upheld by the Supreme Court, the board has to select new committees and appoint a new management.

The various state associations have to wrap up their own elections by November 15. The BCCI had already decided to convene its AGM on September 21, but these deadlines were put up to make sure the board concentrated on the reforms before moving on to new business in 2017.

“It was decided to direct the BCCI that the AGM to be called on 21.9.2016 be limited only to routine business concerning the past year (2015-16), and deal with any business or matters relating to the next year (2016-17) only after the adoption of the MoA and Rules as per the recommendations of the Committee in accordance with the same,” the Lodha committee said according to the minutes of its Sunday meeting.

The committee released minutes of all its meetings in the last month from which it was learnt that on August 25, BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke had submitted a “First Compliance Report”, detailing the extent to which the board and the state associations had implemented the Lodha reforms. It was also understood the Lodha committee was not updated on the tenders and contracts the BCCI had approved while conducting the two-match T20I series against West Indies in Florida and did not want a similar situation to happen when the board would invite bids for the next set of IPL broadcast and digital rights.

Consequently it was decided that Gopal Sankaranarayanan, the Committee’s secretary, would liaise with BCCI CEO Rahul Johri to ascertain “transparency requirements” of bids, tenders and contracts involving the BCCI.

During its meeting with Shirke, the Lodha Committee also rejected the report prepared by former Supreme court judge Markandey Katju, which had called the Supreme Court’s judgment to accept a majority of the Lodha reforms as “illegal and unconstitutional.” The Committee also noted that although the BCCI called it the Katju Report, it was an “opinion”. Upon Katju’s advice, the BCCI had filed a review petition against the Lodha reforms before a larger bench of the Supreme Court. But the committee, on August 9, had “impressed” upon Shirke that the “time schedule had to be maintained in accordance with the Supreme Court Order.”