BCCI defies main Lodha reforms

A defiant BCCI rejected many Lodha Committee main recommendations approved by Supreme Court in the marathon SGM meeting here on Saturday. BCCI members haven’t accepted one state one vote, nine years tenure for the office bearers, cooling off period and age cap of 70 for office bearers and continue with the five-selectors.

Some of the recommendations accepted were the induction of the representative of Comptroller and Auditor General as the member of the Apex Council as well as the IPL Governing Council, formation of the Apex Council with certain modifications, special committee for the differently abled and the women’s committee and formation of the players association and their representation on the committee.

“All State associations participated in today’s SGM except VCA (Vidarbha Cricket Association) who had requested for leave of absence and we had granted that. Mem-bers had a detailed discussion and many important Lodha Committee recommendations were accepted,” said BCCI president Anurag Thakur.

Those recommendations which members felt can’t be approved due to certain technicalities and legalities were not accepted. The members gave suggestions and we will send a detailed report in Supreme Court and will sent it to Lodha Committee what members have accepted and why they have not accepted other recommendations,” Thakur added.

VCA became the first full member of the BCCI to accept the Lodha panel recommendations in its totality in VCA’s Special General Meeting on Friday. Thakur who along with many BCCI top brass could also be on his way out if the main Lodha Committee recommendations approved by apex court were accepted by BCCI said members gave their viewpoint and we accepted it.

“Members form the board structure in BCCI, we were there to convene meeting and invited members to adopt. They gave view point and they were accepted,” he said.

The meeting was adjourned on Friday recommenced on Saturday noon and lasted well over six overs with Thakur briefing the media at 8.45 pm. The associate members were also given the voting rights as per the ICC guidelines and Puducherry will be granted associate membership of the BCCI as proposed at Item no. 7 in the timeline report (of Lodha Committee).

However the associate members from North-East wanted one state one vote to be implemented which was rejected by the full members. “Cricket is the binding force which will bind NorthEast more with rest of the country. So we want BCCI to implement one state one vote,” said Meghalaya Cricket Assoc-iation secretary Naba Bhattacharjee and co-convenor for NorthEast cricket.

The SGM also accepted Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials, Anti-Doping Code, Anti-Racism Code, Anti-Corruption Code and Operational Rules for implementation for the next IPL season.

However the BCCI members felt 15-day gap between the national calendar and the IPL willl not be possible in the year 2017.