Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been under the pump since the Lodha committee has made its intrusion into their internal matters. Now that the reform measures have been set, the Lodha committee has made it clear that BCCI should deal with the Supreme Court directly. The Lodha panel has also made it clear that cricket won’t suffer for all these reform measures.
And the latest movement on this front is set to corner BCCI even further for the Law Commission is set to take into consideration the application of the RTI Act to the highest authority of Indian cricket. And this would force BCCI to do away with the secret meetings held to elect or remove any politician, signing contracts with the sponsors and even the selection of the players. According to the Law Commission Chairman Justice B S Chauhan, “We are examining the applicability of RTI Act to the BCCI, which according to the Supreme Court discharges a public function.”
The recommendations that have been noted by the Supreme Court include firstly the idea of extending the RTI Act to BCCI and secondly the idea of legalising betting in cricket in India. The recommendation of legalising betting is subject to examination by the Law Commission and the Government taking into consideration the necessity of such action. The requirement of such a proposal came into being when the betting eclipsed cricket in IPL 2013 ultimately leading to the expulsion of the then BCCI chairman N. Srinivasan.
In the matter of extending the RTI Act to the BCCI, the apex court has opined that the people have got the right to know all the activities that are performed by the BCCI for the ultimate beneficiary in this matter is the people in India. The Supreme Court said, “As a possible first step in the direction of bringing the BCCI under the purview of Right to Information Act, we expect the Law Commission of India to examine the issue and make a suitable recommendation to the government.”
The Lodha committee, on the other hand, is scheduled to meet later this month for a review of the current situation. When asked about whether there is any scheduled meeting with the BCCI, words came out that the decision will be made once the committee meets again, which further makes it imminent that before getting rid of the bars imposed upon them regarding the financial issues, BCCI has to execute the reform measures put forward by the Lodha panel.
