On Sunday, an important constituent of the Board of Control for Cricket in India became the first association to officially respond to the Supreme Court order on “Reforms in Cricket” recommended by the Justice Lodha Committee.
While it is not known how many office bearers and managing committee members of the Mumbai Cricket Association took the time to read and comprehend the 300-page recommendations of the Committee and the 143-page Supreme Court order that disposed the Public Interest Litigation that began the process, the majority of them are sure to be in full grasp of the operative parts of the recommendations.
Each one of the 17 members — six office bearers and 11 managing committee members — knows whether he can contest the next MCA elections that will be held under a new constitution as enunciated by the Lodha Committee.
One of them works for the police department, another for the State Road Transport office and yet another is a Customs employee; all three could come under of the definition of government servants who are barred from contesting elections at the BCCI and the provincial levels.
On Sunday, MCA president Sharad Pawar had made an emphatic statement — perhaps for public consumption — about how the MCA had no reservations in accepting the Supreme Court order on the basis of the Lodha Committee recommendations. Pawar’s use of the word “unanimous” notwithstanding, vice-president Dilip Vengsarkar has voiced concerns and misgivings about some of the recommendations.
Perhaps a few more will speak their minds soon. A managing committee member had expressed doubts about the capacity of the MCA to hold an international match without a politician at the helm. “This venue was ready for the ICC World Cup 2011 final because of Sharad Pawar and the late Vilasrao Deshmukh. Phone calls did the trick, not committee meetings,” he said.
“Will any government officer allow us to run things smoothly during an international match?”
But the MCA has taken things in its stride, and it is more or less certain that the new bylaws and a player association will be in place for the next elections, to be held by mid- December or by mid-January 2017.
While it will await clarifications on a few aspects from the BCCI and the Lodha Committee, there ought to be no hitches in drawing up a list of international players who will automatically become the association’s voting members.
While the understanding of some BCCI officials is that Justice Lodha will ensure that the BCCI and the full members follow the timelines set by the Committee, many on the Board are surprised by the silence maintained by its top two functionaries.
Neither president Anurag Thakur nor secretary Ajay Shrike has formally responded to the Supreme Court order. Their reaction should be interesting, for apart from getting relief on the advertising-related matters during live broadcasts of international matches at home and distribution of subventions, the Supreme Court has agreed with the Committee’s recommendations.
The powers of the president and secretary have been clipped while making the CEO a very powerful official.
Another matter most of the BCCI officials are not ambiguous is about their position in the future administration, at the national and the State levels. They know their days are numbered, and after six months they can just about be passionate followers of the game if they wish to.
“Our entire committee has completed nine years, so all of us will go out,” said a senior official of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.
In short, the BCCI and its member units will lose a high percentage of experienced office-bearers, and will have a new-look from January 2017. Only Shirke, from among the incumbent set of four principal office-bearers, will be eligible to contest the next elections.
It is speculated that Thakur, who has been an office bearer as joint secretary from 2011, will be ruled out because he will have to serve the cooling off period of three years.
Everything will become clear on August 9 when the two BCCI officials meet Justice Lodha.
