Anurag Thakur caught SC, bowled Lodha

Foolhardy defiance of the apex court by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) led to the Supreme Court’s order on Monday dismissing its president and secretary, Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke, said Wisden India in this report after the court ruling. Meanwhile, the apex court sought the help of Fali Nariman and Gopal Subramaniam in forming a panel to administer cricket in India during the interim period.

On July 18, the Supreme Court had given the BCCI four to six months to implement the Lodha panel recommendations. However, the BCCI, not only dragged its feet but also refused to accept several of the recommendations.

Indeed, the ousted BCCI president Anurag Thakur enlisted former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju to question the feasibility of the recommendations.

In public statements, he seemed to scoff at the ruling in July saying on one occasion that if the court felt retired judges could run cricket better, he wished them luck.

He made things worse by writing to the International Cricket Council (ICC) asking it to object to the Lodha panel’s recommendation that an auditor deputed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) be included in BCCI’s governing council. While the ICC has been opposing government interference in Cricket, it could not have opposed the direction of the highest court in India.

By first denying that he had written any such letter and then saying defiantly that he had merely sought a clarification from the ICC, Thakur has opened himself to the charge of perjury and contempt of court. In his public statements he was often bitter and belligerent:

• “The BCCI has created its own infrastructure without taking a single penny from the government. Yet some former cricketers, not all, speak against us,”
• Asked why BCCI can’t have one lakh coaches for the one lakh village panchayats, Thakur sarcastically said, “We have a lot of money but we can’t spend it. We need permission for it.”

While the BCCI and the state associations are expected to fall in line, they can still prefer a Review Petition and a Curative Petition, say legal experts. But they are unlikely to bring them much relief, the experts believe.

Among other things, the Lodha panel had recommended:

• One state-one vote in place of Maharashtra and Bombay cricket associations enjoying two votes.
• Politicians, serving ministers and bureaucrats to be debarred from holding offices
• No office-bearer to continue beyond the age of 70 years
• No more than three terms in the state or the national board
• A cooling-off period after every three-year term
• A players’ body to be formed and represented in the BCCI

In the perceptive piece referred above, Wisden India said, “For years now, the concept of ‘conflict of interest’ has been a hazy one for the BCCI, with administrators continuing to cultivate their local support even as they took on national roles. When the itinerary for the World Twenty20 was drawn up in late 2015, Dharamsala (home to Thakur) and Nagpur (Shashank Manohar’s backyard, before he left the BCCI for the ICC’s top job) got the most matches. In February-March this year, Pune, where Shirke has his support base, and Dharamsala will host high-profile Test matches against Australia. Coincidence?