In what is going to be the judgment day for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the Supreme Court is set to come out with its verdict that should change the face of the influential sports body. The Supreme Court had asked the BCCI to submit an undertaking by October 7 that it would unconditionally accept all the recommendations of the Lodha Committee. But the defiance of the BCCI is indication that the board is willing to break but not budge.
The special meeting held in New Delhi on Saturday upheld the view that the board shouldn’t digress from its stand and allow its counsel, Kapil Sibal, to present its argument. Some associations are ready to amend their constitution but most are of the view that the recommendations of ‘one state, one vote’, capping of tenure and cooling-off periods in between can’t be accepted under any circumstance. Monday should be the last chance for the BCCI to try and reason with the Supreme Court.
Read | Why BCCI is against implementing key Lodha panel reforms
Given the Court’s no-nonsense attitude, however, the BCCI is braced for the worst. The apex court already warned the cricket body that it can’t pick and choose from the recommendations as it had done after a special general meeting on October 1. The court could well ask the top brass — president Anurag Thakur, secretary Ajay Shirke, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and joint secretary Amitabh Choudhary — to step down before appointing an ad-hoc committee that will ensure the Lodha Committee’s recommendations are implemented in its entirety. In all likelihood, a former judge could be appointed as legal advisor to the committee that could comprise only former players.
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{{/usCountry}}Read | What if SC scraps BCCI top brass? Ex-players could be asked to take charge
{{/usCountry}}If the court decides that is the way forward, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly could be heavily involved in the remodelling of the BCCI as he is the biggest name in cricket administration right now. In 2014, Sunil Gavaskar was asked to head the BCCI during the IPL in the aftermath of the spot-fixing scandal. Ganguly, president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) for over a year now and part of two high-profile BCCI committees, could be the perfect candidate for the Supreme Court.
The biggest question is how long the judiciary will be willing to supervise the body if the BCCI remodelling kicks off on Monday. Implementing all the recommendations in each state association is a time-consuming process and that could mean the BCCI might be without full-time office-bearers for a considerable period. And since many of the committees could be drastically pruned or even done away with, day-to-day functioning and representation of the board, the most powerful national cricket body, in the ICC could be an issue.