Giving a huge blow to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s financial power, the Supreme Court has ordered the cricket board to not release funds to state cricket bodies till they vow to implement all the reforms recommended by the Lodha Panel. It also includes the funds that the board gives to the state boards for match purposes.
The bench led by Chief Justice of India T S Thakur also instructed the Lodha panel to appoint independent auditors to scrutinise the BCCI accounts. Not only that, the court also ordered that the Lodha panel would fix a limit on the monetary value of contracts and the cricket board will have to take permission from the Panel if they want any contract above the limit set by the Panel.
The stern step was taken by the apex court after the board’s repeated reluctance to implement the reforms recommended by the Lodha Panel. The panel was formed by the Supreme Court last year to bring transparency in the functioning of the board. However, the board seemed reluctant to implement the reforms completely which infuriated the panel. Last month, the board threatened to cancel the on-going New Zealand series after it claimed that the panel was trying to freeze its account.
A miffed Anurag Thakur had said:“Cricket cannot run without money. We don’t take money from the government. We are not allowed to make payments. I can’t say anything about the India-New Zealand series. We leave it to the respective state associations whether they can host the New Zealand matches, whether they are ready to organise the matches without any money.”
However, the panel denied the claims but the long-standing feud took an ugly turn when the panel asked the apex court to remove the top brass of the board including president Anurag Thakur.
While the court reserved its order on the panel’s demand to remove the BCCI officials by giving the board members some more time but the latest development will be a huge setback for the board.
The apex court has ordered board president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke to file an affidavit by 3rd December on how they have implemented its July 18 judgment on the reforms suggested by the Lodha panel. and how much time it requires to do so.
Anurag Thakur has also been instructed to appear personally before the panel to give an explanation on how the board is planning to implement the reforms.