BCCI firm in its stand against Lodha Panel

The BCCI received a huge boost on Saturday in its tussle with the Supreme Court over the Lodha Panel recommendations. The BCCI held a special meeting on 15th of October 2016, ahead of the apex court's hearing on 17th October.

The meeting was scheduled to concentrate on three major issues- age cap of 70 years, cooling-off period and one state, one vote. The meeting in New Delhi proved to be an effective one for the BCCI as the majority of member associations decided to follow the footsteps of the board.

However, as per the reports to Times of India, it is learnt that three associations- Tripura, Vidarbha and Hyderabad- have expressed their desire to implement all the recommendations of the Lodha Panel.

While Vidarbha and Tripura had their intentions pretty clear, the Hyderabad cricket association has given a submission to the lower court about its desire to go by the recommendations of Lodha Panel.

A top BCCI official was quoted in Times of India as saying:

"The objective of the meeting was to get a sense of the member associations. They are all on the same page as BCCI. As for Vidarbha and Tripura, if one goes through their resolutions, they haven't accepted all the recommendations,"

Interestingly, the representatives from the Rajasthan cricket association were not allowed to attend the meeting as BCCI president Anurag Thakur asked them to move out even before the meeting had started. However, vice president of RCA, Mehmood Abdi said that he was invited by BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke.

Chief Justice TS Thakur is due to make a final call on Monday regarding the BCCI's stand over the Lodha Panel recommendations. However, BCCI seems to be confident after gaining the support of the majority of the member associations during its special meeting on Saturday.

The BCCI official went on to add:

"The state associations, barring four which includes RCA, have unanimously said that they are fine with what the board decides. The BCCI top brass briefed them about the status of the case and the legal repercussions, we are sticking to what was decided in the last special general meeting in Mumbai two weeks ago."

On asking whether the board will be given a window to put forward its views to the Chief Justice regarding the issue, the BCCI official said that the board had full faith in its advocate, Kapil Sibal. He was quoted in Times of India as saying:

"We know our advocate Kapil Sibal will be giving an argument before the judgment is delivered. There he will narrate the practical difficulties clause by clause and the rest is up to the court to decide. We will spell out our concerns and then take it from there,"

With TS Thakur to pass a statement over this long-standing issue on Monday, the cricketing fraternities will be hoping that the court and the board arrive at a final solution which may be acceptable to both the parties.