Supreme Court freezes BCCI funds to states till reforms kick in

The Supreme Court ordered the Indian cricket board on Friday not to release funds to state associations, saying money already disbursed would not be used without a commitment to accept reforms suggested by the top court-appointed Justice Lodha Committee.

This means 12 state associations will not get funds and the other 13 cannot use what they have got unless affidavits are filed to accept reforms and fix the mess in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The order comes after the court threatened on Thursday to change the cricket board’s leadership for doggedly refusing to implement a raft of reforms. The cricket board’s bitter standoff with the judiciary threatens to impact the way India’s most popular sport is run.

The BCCI disbursed Rs 400 crore last week despite the panel’s direction against the same. The court said the disbursement was completely avoidable.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur said on Friday that other aspects of the recommendations would be considered on October 17.

The court had formed the Lodha committee in January last year, and later endorsed most of its recommendations and asked the world’s richest cricket body to implement them.

But BCCI refused last week to accept some of the suggestions, including age and tenure restrictions for top officials as well as banning them from serving successive terms, a one-state one-vote policy and a 15-day window before and after the IPL. The court has said the cricket board cannot cherry-pick the recommendations.

The bench asked BCCI president Anurag Thakur on Friday to come clean whether he had persuaded the CEO of the International Cricket Council to opine that the appointment of the Lodha Committee was government interference in the working of the cricket board, run largely by politicians and businessmen.

The bench said that the BCCI was not fully cooperative, undermining the Committee and even the dignity of the court with statements and actions that may constitute contempt. The court said the cricket board took several decisions in violation of the directives issued by the Committee.

The BCCI on its part said it was not running away from reforms, but insisted that there were certain technical and legal issues which it would address and inform the court on October 17 when the matter is heard next.

The court indicated on Thursday that it could either appoint a new leadership to oversee the transition in the BCCI or ask the Lodha Committee to do it. The bench said the Committee could give more time to the cricket board to carry out the recommendations or appoint a panel of administrators to do so.