Lodha Committee has tarnished BCCI’s image: Thakur
The defiant Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, Anurag Thakur, accused the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee of creating confusion between the Board and state associations, and tarnishing the image of the BCCI by blocking certain bank transactions.
Thakur added that such treatment may sound the “death knell” of Indian cricket.
“If the functioning of the BCCI is hampered in this manner, it will surely be the death knell of Indian cricket and of this institution which is more than 87 years old. We must all work together and strive to take Indian cricket to greater heights,” wrote Thakur in a mail to all the BCCI’s affiliated units on Wednesday, a day before the Supreme Court is set to hear the Board’s response to the Committee’s report.
“There is still a lot of confusion of what payments can be cleared. In fact, the Committee has stated that no payments have to be made to the State associations and has also directed the associations not to deal with funds transferred by the BCCI,” Thakur wrote in the mail, accessed by The Hindu. “Unfortunately, this has also affected the image of India and the BCCI as various international newspapers, too, have carried articles of the freezing and de-freezing of bank accounts of the BCCI.
“… another flip flop is that the Committee states that no payment other than cricket matters is to be made. Payments to associations are also for cricket matters.
“There is no explanation or clarity from the Committee on this,” states Thakur.
Revealing that “many” State associations “have written to suspend matches and postpone the cricket calendar,” Thakur says he is “aware of the problems being faced by you for running the cricket season with limited finances as a result of this directive. However, rest assured the BCCI will do everything possible to ensure that the money which it holds in trust on behalf of the State associations is released to them.”
Thakur further states that the Committee has “chosen to apply the (Supreme Court) judgment retrospectively on the tenure of office-bearers”. “I fail to understand how they can pick and choose,” writes Thakur, comparing it with the Committee allowing a gap of less than 15 days between IPL 2017 and the international schedule. “If the report is to be binding, it should be binding in totality and not in parts at the discretion of anybody.”
Thakur concludes the mail, venting out his frustration at the Lodha Committee. “I also want to share with you that nearly every day we have received directives from the Committee, threatening the BCCI with contempt of court proceedings for many of the decisions on routine cricketing matters.
“The BCCI has courteously and respectfully responded to such directives, explaining its stand in the matter for the consideration of the high-powered Committee. However, there have been no replies from this Committee on the explanations of the BCCI. Instead, in recent mails, from the secretary of the Committee, the other BCCI office-bearers and I have been accused of misleading people.”
Source: The Hindu
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