The BCCI on Friday unanimously decided to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court pointing out the "anomalies and difficulties" in implementing the Justice lodha Committee recommendations on the restructuring of the cricket board.
It was decided in the Special General Meeting of the BCCI that secretary Anurag Thakur will file an affidavit on behalf of the BCCI in the apex court.
The lodha Committee has recommended wide ranging sweeping reforms in the BCCI including having only one vote per state, age cap of its officials, no simultaneous posts in state and national body along with restrictions on advertisements in televised cricket matches.
"The Members authorised the Honorary Secretary BCCI to file an affidavit in the Hon'ble Supreme Court on behalf of the BCCI pointing out the anomalies and difficulties encountered in implementation of Hon'ble Justice lodha Committee's recommendations," the BCCI said in a release.
It is also learnt that BCCI has told the state associations that they can file affidavit separately on the difficulties they faced due to the recommendations.
In fact Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA), who will be affected on two counts losing voting rights due to 'One State One Vote' recommendation which may come into effect and its president Niranjan Shah requiring to quit if the age-cap of 70 is implemented, are moving court.
"We will be filing an affidavit in Supreme Court," SCA supremo Niranjan Shah said on Friday.
It has been learnt that some of the points that will be in the affidavit include: The 'One state One Vote' recommendation which means that traditional cricket powerhouses like Mumbai, Baroda lose voting rights.
The 'Age Cap of 70 years and cooling off period of three years between two posts will also figure in the affidavit.
Not holding position simultaneously in both state and BCCI like secretary Anurag Thakur, treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary and joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary is another point.
The lodha Committee has also recommended having other sports in cricket stadiums during off-season, which the BCCI feels is practically not feasible.
And finally, the most important point is about 'having advertisement breaks only during lunch or tea in international matches' which will lead to BCCI losing approximately `1,500 crore of revenues.
The Working Committee also authorized the President and Hony. Secretary to appoint an agency to search for candidates for the posts of CEO and CFO for the BCCI, as one of the reforms suggested by the SC appointed committee.
manohar asked to explain icc’s financial restructuring
BCCI president Shashank Manohar, who is committed to ending the monopoly of India, Australia and England in the ICC, has been asked by working committee to apprised them of the steps that are being taken regarding the financial restructuring of the global cricket body.
As per the earlier structure, BCCI along with England and Australia were pooling in 80 per cent of the revenues, being the nations that brought the money to the body. However Manohar, as ICC chairman, had made it clear that he wanted equitable distribution.
While this could lead to a revenue loss for the BCCI, it also did not go down well with the members that the matter was not brought to the table in any of the BCCI meetings before Manohar went for the ICC meeting in Dubai.
However, the working committee on Friday decided that Manohar and secretary Anurag Thakur should discuss the financial ramifications of such a move.
‘Betting should be legalised’
Justice (Retd) Mukul Mudgal, who has headed the IPl spot-fixing and betting probe, on Friday called for betting in cricket to be made legalised in the country.
Asked about legalising betting in the sport, Justice Mudgal said he supports such a step as it would help prevent corruption in cricket.
"It will help in reducing spot fixing and other illegal practices, the government will also be able to make money from it in the form of taxes," he said.
Justice Mudgal said the BCCI is entitled to its opinion on the recommendations of the Supreme Court appointed Justice lodha panel recommendations seeking sweeping reforms to its structure.