Lodha panel report to top working committee agenda

KOLKATA: There will be several matters before the BCCI working committee meeting here on Friday but none will be more important than the Justice Lodha Committee report.

Since this is the first working committee meeting after the verdict was announced (and also the last before September’s AGM), it is expected there will be a fair bit of discussion over how to implement the verdict. A five-member working group is supposed to give its recommendations to the IPL governing council on Thursday and then the working committee.

However, complicating the issue is the petition filed by Chennai Super Kings, seeking a stay against the Justice Lodha Committee order. The BCCI has been sent a notice, making them the de-facto first party. This means the Board will have to wait for the hearing of the appeal in the Madras High Court on Thursday, the reason why the governing council meeting has been convened at 8pm.

If CSK’s petition is turned down, it will make the governing council’s job easier to forward the working group’s recommendations to the working committee for further deliberations. There will be a few options but according to a governing council member the best way forward could be to go for two new franchises. “We have an option to play 10 teams if it comes to that after two years. Anyway, there are plenty of corporate groups willing to buy a team for two years,” he said.

Should CSK manage to get a stay on the order, the BCCI is understood to be prepared to take hasty legal recourse, even if that means getting relief on the stay order on Friday morning. “We have plenty of precedents where the BCCI has got relief against appeals on the morning of an important meeting. I don’t think that should be a problem,” he said.

The working committee meeting is going to be a high-profile affair with N Srinivasan expected to attend. This will be the first meeting Srinivasan will attend since the working committee meeting in Chennai on February 8. Mumbai Cricket Association chief Sharad Pawar is unlikely to attend but there is a possibility Shashank Manohar could fly down to add to the deliberations. Ajay Shirke, another staunch Srinivasan rival, is out of the country but could join via video conference.

NEW DELHI: Soon after India lost the opening Test against Sri Lanka at Galle from a winning position, questions were raised on whether Virat Kohli could cope with the pressures of captaincy.

Sri Lanka g reat Sanath Jayasuriya feels with time, Kohli will come good. “He has learnt his cricket, he is an experienced player…when you have been given a chance to captain India, it will take time,” said Jayasuriya, who led Sri Lanka for four years.

India came back with a bang in the second Test to win by 278 runs, and Jayasuriya said although Kohli will take risks, it will improve his game in the long run. SKIPPER WILL IMPROVE “He will take risks wherever he wants to, calculated risks, but with that he will improve his cricket, batting and team unity. It is a big responsibility but he will manage it,” said Jayasuriya, the only batsman to score 12,000 runs and take 300 wickets in ODIs.

Sri Lanka too are going through change with Kumar Sangakkara retiring after the second Test in Colombo, and Mahela Jayawardene calling time on his ODI career after the World Cup earlier this year. Jayasuriya felt patience with youngsters would pay off.

“We have to act quickly, but whoever we have, people like (Lahiru) Thirimanne and (Dinesh) Chandimal, they need to be more patient with them. We have to go with the youngsters,” said Jayasuriya, who was full of praise for spinner Rangana Herath for his 11 wickets in the two Tests so far.