In startling pointers to irregularities in some Cricket Associations, the Supreme Court was told that a dozen members of the Delhi and District Cricket Association share the same 48 square metre address in the capital: D-12, Shakur Pur Basti.
Elsewhere, in the Saurashtra Cricket Association, one of the oldest in the country, drivers, cooks and their children are on the membership list.
MisappropriationThe Goa Cricket Association has witnessed three of its top officials arrested for large scale misappropriation of funds.
Senior advocate and amicus curiae Gopal Subramanium presented these examples in the Supreme Court before a Special Bench of Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur and Justice F.M.I. Kalifulla on Thursday, contrasting them with the plight of children who are unable to enter cricket stadiums to watch and be inspired by the spirit of the game.
The privileged and well-connected exploit the entry pass system and crowd the stands.
The BCCI has been “out of its depth,” Mr. Subramanium argued, describing the apex court-appointed Justice Lodha panel recommendations as a “wake-up call.”
“It is like standing outside the Regal Cinema hoping someone inside can send out a ticket,” he said.
Contractors are not paid for months and the lights at Ferozeshah Kotla did not work during a match.
“They [BCCI] have done a lot for the game, but the future is at stake. This effort is not to tarnish or truncate their image, but there must be some standardisation of procedure, some spell-check,” Mr. Subramanium submitted in favour of implementing the Justice Lodha Committee’s recommendations.
Mr. Subramanium’s intervention came on the final day of hearing before the Bench reserved final orders on the petitions filed by BCCI and several State Cricket Associations opposing the recommendations made by the Justice Lodha Committee.
Appearing for BCCI during the two-hour long session, senior advocate K.K. Venugopal said the Board was in an auto-correct mode and its functions and memberships could not be a matter for judicial review.
Floodgates of litigationIf the court intervened in BCCI, it had to review the functioning of other sports bodies too, opening the floodgates of litigation, Mr. Venugopal contended.
The Bench, however, pointed to the Goa arrests and asked Mr. Venugopal whether the Board had bothered to put in place a mechanism to trace the use of its funds by member associations.
