BCCI to constitute committee to implement Lodha Panel reforms

Mumbai: The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) will constitute a committee to see how the Supreme Court appointed- Lodha Panel recommendations are implemented by the board in the best possible and swiftest manner.

Briefing the media after BCCI's SGM which was held on Monday, acting secretary of the cricket body Amitabh Chaudhary said, "Today we had an SGM with an eight-point agenda. The most important of which was obviously the implementation of the principal order of the Supreme Court dated 18th of July."

"The House deliberated in very detail and with a view to complete the implementation process, constituted a committee which will examine how best quickly they are implemented."

"The committee will be constituted tomorrow and should have its first recommendations in a fortnight's time. BCCI office bearers will decide how many members will constitute this committee, which could be five or six," he added.

He further informed that the Committee of Administrators (CoA) members will not be part of the committee.

Speaking about the role of the committee, Choudhary said, "The committee will go into each and every point necessitated by the principal judgment and then only those exceptional and limited areas of difficulty would bring it to the notice of the CoA who will thereafter decide the course of action."

The major issues that the committee will be looking into are 'one-state, one-vote', age cap of 70 years, cooling off period after every three years and increasing the number of members in the selection panel to five from current three.

However, as per BCCI sources, the board is likely to go to the Supreme Court objecting the above issues.

When asked about the future course of action about appointing the next Team India coach, the BCCI acting secretary said, "The process to elect the Indian team coach remains the same. The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) will assess all the applicants and based on that the selection will be made."

Choudhary, when asked about former BCCI chief N Srinivasan's presence in the meeting, replied, "A notice for a meeting is a notice. And the notice says that all member units are requested to attend the meeting."

"Who would represent the member unit is a choice made by that unit as long as it doesn't violate any court order. That is all I need to examine and I did," he added.

Earlier in a landmark judgment on July 18, 2016, the Supreme Court accepted major recommendations of Justice R.M. Lodha-led panel on structural reforms in the BCCI and had given six months deadline to the board implement the recommendations.

On October 1, the board had accepted many of the "significant recommendations" of the Lodha Committee, but excluded the important ones which have been a bone of contention between the cricket body and the Lodha Panel.

The recommendations, which have still not been accepted by the 30-member committee, include one-state one-vote, age limit of 70 years, cooling-off period of three years which included the tenure of the administrators, continue with the five-selectors and retaining the powers of the president and secretary as per the earlier constitution of the board.