BCCI Reforms

What was the issue?

In May 2013, the Delhi Police arrested three players, S Sreesanth, AnkeetChavan and AjitChandila of the Rajasthan Royals on charges of spot-fixing.
GurunathMeiyappan, Team Principal of the Chennai Super Kings and son-in-law of BCCI Chief N Srinivasan was subsequently arrested.
The case unraveled a nexus between players, bookies, team owners and administrators involved in financial misappropriation.

What is BCCI?

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India.
The board was formed in December 1928 as a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act.
It is a consortium of state cricket associations and the state associations select their representatives who in turn elect the BCCI officials.
BCCI covertly manages its annual revenue of Rs.2,000 crore.
About half of the revenue is earned by way of broadcast fees of Rs.43 crore per match.
Rest is from the International Cricket Council‘s fund, gate fees, and miscellaneous sponsorships.
It don‘t receive funds from the Government of India.

What were Mudgal Committee‘s findings?

The Supreme Court appointed a special committee under Mukul Mudgal to investigate irregularities in the IPL and BCCI following the spot-fixing scandal.
In November 2014, the Committee found IPL COO, Sundar Raman, CSK Team Principal Gurunath Meiyappan and Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra guilty of betting.
The report found BCCI Chief N Srinivasan guilty of not acting against the accused despite knowing their violations

What were Lodha Committee‘s recommendations?

In January 2015, the SC appointed a committee headed by Justice (Retd) RM Lodha to determine punishments for those named in the Mudgal Committee report and to recommend reforms for cricket in India particularly suggesting amendments to the processes followed by BCCI.
The Lodha Committee report banned the owners of CSK and RR for life, from taking part in any BCCI related cricket activities in India.
The CSK and the RR franchises have been barred in the IPL for 2 years.
Eligibility - As regards the office bearers of BCCI – president, VP, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer – certain eligibility criteria has been fixed. i.e

Tenure - Each office bearer will have a tenure of three years and no office bearer can hold the office for more than three terms. No office-bearer can hold two terms consecutively.
Bringing BCCI under of the purview of RTI Act.
It legalized betting.
The panel felt that the move would help curb corruption in the game and recommended that except for players and officials, people should be allowed to place bets on registered sites.
Further, each state is to have only one official cricket association registered with the BCCI.
IPL and BCCI are to have separate governing bodies.
Three authorities, an ombudsman for internal disputes, an ethics officer and an electoral officer are to be appointed to oversee BCCI activities.
The Lodha committee stated that politicians and government officials may not hold posts in the BCCI.

What was BCCI‘s response?

The BCCI, in a Special General Meeting, unanimously decided to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing the Lodha Committee‘s recommendations.
As the Supreme Court finds that the BCCI impedes and delays the progress of implementing the Lodha Panel recommendations, it has ordered to stop funding from BCCI to State Associations.
In an interim order it directed the board, and the banks, to not allocate funds to those state units which hadn‘t accepted the Lodha committee recommendations in totality.
This step is to make the BCCI fall in line.
Without money, the states will not be able to function in the manner that they do and will have to give up their unprecedented defiance of the last few months.
The apex court also said that contracts above a certain sum will require the Lodha panel‘s approval and that an independent auditor will scrutinise the BCCI‘s accounts and fix this ceiling.
It directed the Lodha panel to fix a limit on the value of contracts the board can enter.
An independent auditor will be appointed, whose clearance is required for all the high-profile contracts, besides fixing the financial upper limit for every contract.
The court‘s basic contention behind appointing the Lodha Committee in January 2015 to revamp the administration cannot be faulted: that the BCCI may be registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, but given the enormous following of the game and the public money it manages, it cannot be run like any other club or trust.