Laying down new criteria to be elected as an officer-bearer with the Board of Control of Cricket in India, the Lodha Committee on Monday recommended that no minister or government servant can be elected to the cricket board.
“As regards the office bearers of BCCI – president, VP, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer – certain eligibility criteria has been fixed. He must be an Indian, he must not be above age of 70, he must not be insolvent, he must not be a minister or government servant, and who has not held office in the BCCI for a cumulative period for nine years,” said Justie Lodha addressing media in New Delhi.
He added that each office bearer will have a tenure of three years and no office bearer can hold the office for more than three terms with the rider that there will be a cooling off after each term – in other words no office bearer can hold terms consecutively in total, and never two terms consecutively to account for a ‘cooling period.’
The other big recommendation comes in the form bringing BCCI under of the purview of Right to Information (RTI) Act – an issue that has long been a bone of contention with the cricket body.
The committee also proposed that Indian Premier League (IPL) and the BCCI should have separate governing bodies, along with a host of other recommendations for the governance of BCCI to the Supreme Court.
The committee also said that board officials could be restricted to just two terms in office.
The three-member committee comprising Justice (Retd) RM Lodha, Justice (Retd) Ashok Bhan and Justice (Retd) RV Raveendran submitted the report on restructuring of the BCCI.
“Some of the things we discussed with Shashank Manohar, he immediately put those into action. First thing we did was interact with BCCI officials — all except the President and Secretary appeared (both responded to questionnaire)” Justice Lodha said in the press conference, adding that a lot of former India captains were also provided with an opportunity to respond to the questionnaire.
Other key points of the reforms suggested by Justice Lodha and his committee:
1. One association of each state will be a full member and have right to vote.
2. IPL and BCCI to have separate governing bodies.
3. The committee suggested three authorities to help with the BCCI governance.
– An ombudsman – who’s duty would be to preside internal disputes resolution mechanism, dispute between BCCI and members, BCCI and associates, breaches by administrators, players, team officials – to be appointed. The committee proposed that he be a former judge of the Supreme Court or a Chief Justice of High Court.
– An ethics officer – whose task is to administer the issues relating to the conflict of interest, misdemeanour, misbehaviour or corruption issues – to be appointed. The committee suggested that be a former High Court judge.
– An Electoral Officer, who would oversee the entire election process related to the office bearers, namely prep of voters list, issues of eligibility of office bearers etc. The officer will be nominated weeks before the date of election.
More to follow
Background to the Lodha committee reforms report:
In September, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur and IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla deposed before the Supreme Court appointed Justice (Retd) RM Lodha Commission on the possible reforms that the board is expected to carry out once the second part of report was released. It was learnt that the both the senior BCCI officials had a fruitful discussions with the panel.
Earlier in July, the Lodha Committee recommended two-year suspension of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals from the cash-rich Indian Premier League.
Tainted CSK Team principal and ICC chairman N Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was handed a life-ban for indulging in illegal betting activity during 2013 IPL along with former Rajasthan co-owner Raj Kudra.