In the past few days, the Apex Court has been coming hard on the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI) and telling them to implement the lodha committee recommendations, BCCI General Secretary Anurag Thakur on Friday made it crystal clear that the board is not looking for an escape route.
“We believe in transparency and accountability. In the last nine months or so, we have proven that steps what BCCI has taken is in the right direction. The certain changes that we have brought in the structure and in the organisation have been applauded by everyone. Now if you see, Justice lodha has recommended many things. We have requested the state cricket associations to look into that.”
“They are the member of the board. They form the board. So every member has the right to look into the recommendations, come up with suggestions and yes, our legal committee met and again we are going to meet on February 7th.
The Special General meeting has been called in the third week of this month. We have requested the state associations to come out with their recommendations before that. It is a due process that we have adopted.
And as well as the details of the recommendations of lodha committee is concerned, during the next hearing in the Supreme Court we will definitely go and give our views on that.” he further added.
However there are also views that the BCCI and State associations are going slow ‘deliberately’ on accepting the recommendations or even deliberating. Giving his views, the Secretary said, “See we need to understand that the report is not just of one page. It’s detailed report which will have consequences on working of the BCCI and the functions of the board. And when a committee has taken nearly 12 months to come out with a report, we are taking close to two months to discuss and debate and after deliberation come to a consensus to implement that report.
We are not slow, when the report came; I had written letters to all the associations to call their meetings. We are not shying away.”
The BCCI also on Friday gave a lifeline to Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), giving the body time till February 8 to have the necessary compliance certificates if they want to host World T20 match.
Speaking about the matter, he said, “As far as the DDCA is concerned, we have discussed this matter at the ICC meeting and it has been decided that the deadline be extended to February 8th by which they have to get all the required NOCs. In case they fail to get the NOCs, we have a Plan B ready which we will immediately implement.”
Being the president of Himanchal Pradesh Cricket Association, Thakur gave his views on if all the lodha recommendations can be implemented or not, he said, “I think I will reserve my say on this until the BCCI’s AGM. We are meeting today to discuss the recommendations.
All I can say is, even in the media there have been so many discussions, debates on what could be implemented, what might be the repercussions that we will have. So these are certain issues where things are not very clear. So I think, till the time we look into details, what could be the way out, I think we need to sit and discuss and the BCCI collectively should see what could be the way out so that it should not affect the functioning of state associations and the BCCI.” he said.
However, Thakur indicated that the board is not entirely happy with the lodha recommendations.
“If you look at 1983 World Cup winning team we were unable to give enough money to them. Thirty years down the line we have done something good. It has paid off. I mean it can’t be that everything is wrong within the BCCI. You can’t say that. I think what we have achieved in last 30-40 years should also be looked at.” he explained.
Thakur also had a word for Ex ICC president N. Srinivasan when question of spot-fixing came into role. “We are paying the price for the mistakes made in the earlier era. What happened was loss of face and credibility. lack of decision-making during that regime also hurt the image of the board. But in the last nine months, we have tried to restore the image of the board. Everyone knows that who caused damage and who restored the image.”
He also took a jibe at the popular topic about ‘Conflict of Interest’. “What actually is Conflict of InterestIJ he asked smiling and jokingly.
Kevin Pietersen is playing in the T20 leagues and also is commentating in the same tournament. lot of players in other countries like Australia are doing the same. So is that you will term as conflictIJ Bharat mein toh yeh ho gaya hain, ki hum Conflict of Interest ko leke aaye, kuch logo ne isko aadat bana li hain. Ek platform bana lia hain ki roj case daal do jaake court mein. But having said that, whatever measures we have taken from our side to improve is in the right direction.” he said.