New Delhi : The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) top brass appears not at all rattled by the Supreme Court”s ruling on Friday to tighten the screw on its financial powers as it finds the order on the Bihar Cricket Association”s petition much comfortable and not harsh as feared.
Though its problems stem from the recommendations of the Apex Court-appointed 3-member panel headed by former Chief Justice of India Rajendra Mal Lodha, it fears Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur more than Justice Lodha because of his continuous pressure to arm-twist the BCCI.
BCCI president Anurag Thakur, a BJP MP who turns 42 on Monday, is playing a strategy to wait till January 3 when Chief Justice Thakur retires. It”s his gameplan to repeatedly request for more time to implement the reforms suggested by the Lodha panel.
He is much happy on the BCCI getting almost 40 days by default after Friday’s order as the next date of hearing is December 5. He hopes once the CJI is out after one or two more hearings, other judges may not be as harsh.
No surprise, Justice (retd) Lodha also stressed on Friday that he and other members of his panel are ready to speak to the BCCI office-bearers to sort out issues and work together for effecting the much-needed reforms. Those close to Anurag Thakur say his hope is reflected in the Friday order. They point out that though the order came from a 3-judge Bench headed by the CJI, it was pronounced by Justice D Y Chandrachud which is much palatable.
Going by the tone and tenor of the high-voltage hearing during which the apex cricket body was pulled up frequently, it had feared the worst.
Thakur rejoiced particularly that the Court did not heed to the Lodha panel”s stand to supersede the present office-bearers with immediate effect and replace them with a panel of administrators to ensure smooth transition from the old to the new system. The Court felt appointment of the administrators to run the cricket board would be too harsh and so Thakur and BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke remain untouched to continue at the helm of affairs.
The Court even did not take any action against Thakur for trying to make the International Cricket Council (ICC) to oppose implementation of the Lodha panel”s suggestions. Instead, it just directed the Lodha panel”s secretary to convey its Friday order to the ICC chairman Shashank Manohar.
The Lodha panel wanted wider representation of states in the domestic cricket, but nothing like that has happened as the Ranji Trophy is already underway and the SC did not pull up the BCCI for going ahead with it as per its wish.
Anurag Thakur is also happy over the court directing the Lodha panel to appoint independent auditors to scrutinise every financial transaction of the BCCI just at a time it is to handle multi-billion dollar media rights of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) as it will impart more transparency to steps he has already taken.
Those in the know say even the Supreme Court stopping all BCCI payments to the state associations till they comply with the Lodha report will not do any damage if the money due to them is withheld. They said the state bodies will not be crippled in organising the matches since they had been already paid Rs 25 crore in March and that included Rs 12 crore towards expenditure in the 2016-17 season.
