Apex court leaves no room for excuses by BCCI
The Supreme Court's ultimatum to the Board of Control for Cricket in India that, either the BCCI falls in line with the recommendations of the Justice RM lodha panel to revamp the Board's functioning or be prepared for a court directive to make it do so, has left the BCCI no elbow room to wriggle out of the process of massive reforms. This should in reality not be too difficult for the Board since its new chief Shashank Manohar has displayed a healthy appetite for far-reaching changes some of which he initiated within weeks of assuming power following an end to the controversial reign of Mr N Srinivisan as Board chairman. With the right intent in place with Mr Manohar at the helm, the Board should not try to delay the inevitable by using technical reasons; the apex court has already put paid to one such effort when it dismissed the excuse by the Board's counsel that, since the implementation of reforms was under consideration of a 30-member panel and that there were a number of technicalities to be resolved, the process would take a while. The two-judge Bench gave the BCCI four weeks' time to either adopt and implement the Justice lodha recommendations or face the music, adding that there would be no “second innings” for the Board. This tough posture does not come as a surprise; after all, the lodha panel came into being through a court mandate and there was no way its findings could be played around with. Mr Manohar and his team will now have to hasten the revamp to meet the deadline. Also, no longer can State units place hurdles by either refusing to go along or seeking more time as they sort out their affairs. The time for such obstructions is gone. There is no doubt that the suggestions of Justice lodha panel are revolutionary the court termed them “straight” and “rational” and, when implemented, they will dramatically change the way cricket is administered in the country, both at the central and the State levels.
Among the recommendations on which the Board has had some reservations is the one-State-one-vote principle. While some States may have more than one team (for historical reasons) participating in tournaments, the State will have only one vote to cast in elections. Another recommendation which the Board has to now implement concerns the upper age limit for cricket administrators; this has been capped at 70 years. A number of people will get weeded out of positions of power in the coming months as a result of this move. These, taken with the several other suggested measures, should make the BCCI leaner and more transparent. The immediate task before the Board is to call a special meeting of its general body to formally adopt the recommendations and begin implementation, so that when the four weeks the court has given is up, it has something to show for. It's good that a BCCI official has said the Board is “not shying away” from the task.