The Story:
The newly set up committee, tasked with the responsibility of helping BCCI apply the Lodha recommendation, sought the guidance of Indian finance minister and former BCCI vice-president, Arun Jaitley to condense the list of disputed reforms.
The committee has identified six to seven points which have been unanimously agreed as difficult to implement. But, it aims to trim down the list to 3-4 points. The member of the committee met Jaitley on Saturday to discuss the possible ways to get the work completed before the next hearing of the Supreme Court.
The panel includes BCCI’s acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, vice-president TC Mathew, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, Nabha Bhattacharjee, the secretary of the Meghalaya Cricket Association, Jay Shah, the joint-secretary of the Gujarat Cricket Association.
The Supreme Court signed off on the Lodha Committee recommendations on July 18 last year, making it mandatory for the BCCI to adopt them. But, the apex cricket board is yet to be fully applied.
Adhere To The Recommendations Quickly
Arun Jaitley has asked the committee to focus on major three to four recommendations in the meeting on Saturday. Those who attended the Saturday meeting included Amitabh Choudhury (BCCI secretary), Anirudh Chaudhry (BCCI treasurer), Rajiv Shukla (head of the committee) and Jay Shah (one of the seven members of the committee).
“He said that that the genuine points of difficulty, which cannot be more than three of four, can only be brought or submitted before the Supreme Court,” a board official privy to the meeting told ESPNcricinfo. “He said we should stick to those three or four recommendations, which the court also may understand. The other things should be dropped. If the quantum of the disagreement is too large, your points will not be considered.”
The panel will be meeting again on July 7 and will finalise a report which will be presented at the Special General Meeting (SGM) which is expected to be conducted before July 14.
The effect of the political heavyweight involving in the issue is already evident, as according to the BCCI insider that three major Lodha Committee recommendations have already been shortlisted.
The committee was the court to reconsider – one-state-one-vote, a three-man selection committee, and having a three-year cooling-off period for an office bearer after every term of three years.
Opinions Divided
Jaitley has agreed that the cooling-off recommendation needs reconsideration, as implementation of the rule can bring a bunch of inexperienced candidates to the chair at once.
“He said the tenure of nine years is good enough. Once you put a cap on the tenure (of nine years), what is the point putting a cooling-off period? It will become impractical. Suddenly you will have three or four office bearers starting with the new job without any background or experience.”
But Jaitley did not find any fault with that “age-cap of 70 for an office bearer” recommendation.
“He said that cap is good enough because that limit has been placed only on office bearers, not on nominees, representatives etc.”
He has made it clear that the BCCI could be dealt with sternly if did not comply with the Supreme Court.
“His view was very, very clear. It is not just the finance minister of India or somebody who has been associated with cricket at the top level, but also one of the top lawyers of the country talking,” the BCCI insider said. “He knows how the court is likely to deal with the subject.”