BCCI on the back foot after latest Lodha Committee and ICC update

It was an inauspicious start to the week for the governing body for cricket in India, the BCCI, as they found themselves at the receiving end of bad news from opponents – both at home, from the Supreme Court appointed Lodha Committee, and globally, from the International Cricket Council.

Having had enough of the BCCI ignoring their long-standing warnings about implementing the reforms, the Lodha Committee has requested the Supreme Court to appoint former Union Home Minister GK Pillai as the ‘observer’ of the BCCI.

What that would mean for the board is that once the appointment of the ‘observer’ is completed, the current office-bearers, both at the centre – Anurag Thakur – and the states, would be immediately rendered powerless.

BCCI’s CEO Rahul Johri would be responsible for the administrative and management aspects of the BCCI without having to take the prior approval of the members in the current power structure, including the President. Rahul Johri would, in turn, be under the supervision of GK Pillai, the observer.

GK Pillai would be given a huge mandate, which includes, appointing an auditor to look into BCCI’s accounts and tenders, taking over on all financial matters relating to domestic, international and IPL matches immediately, and further, he would even have the power to appoint secretarial staff and decide their remuneration.

The state associations are currently facing a cash crunch as the Supreme Court has directed that no disbursement of funds can happen because of to the fact that the BCCI has waived one of the orders from July 18^th regarding the eligibility criteria for a member.

The tussle between the BCCI and the Lodha Committee has had a spillover effect and has started affecting the Indian Cricket team as well. It was learned that because of the failure to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, the English players are yet to receive a single day’s allowance in India.

While matters have only appeared to have become worse on the home-front for the BCCI, things have taken a turn for the worse with the ICC as well.

The BCCI has clearly expressed their reservations about the current ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar after he vacated the BCCI post to take up his role at the ICC. They are set to miss out on the second consecutive Working Group meeting after they did not receive an invitation for the meeting in Adelaide this week. Only a couple of months ago, BCCI were ignored for the meeting in Singapore as well.

The BCCI insinuated that this a deliberate attempt to freeze BCCI out of the scheme of things due to the tussle with Shashank Manohar. A source close to the Times of India told them, “This is a deliberate attempt by Manohar to keep BCCI out of the ICC’s affairs” .

The Working Group is responsible for the functioning and governance of the game and also takes decisions about things like the ICC’s revenue sharing model – a key sticking point between the two bodies in the past.

Things are sure to get more interesting over the next couple of weeks as the BCCI clearly have their backs against the wall at the moment.