Justice Lodha panel submits report to SC; accuses BCCI of stalling reforms

The Justice Lodha Committee on Wednesday submitted its status report with the Supreme Court, accusing the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) of defying the apex court's orders and stalling its proposed reforms.

In its report, the Supreme Court-appointed panel stated that the BCCI was not implementing its recommendations aimed at reforming the country's cricket governing body.

It also pleaded to the Chief Justice of India for an early hearing to which CJI T S Thakur replied, "We will hear the matter".

The move comes after the BCCI appointed a five-member selection committee during its Annual General Meeting on September 21, which was in violation to the Lodha panel's guidelines.

Tearing into the BCCI for ignoring the directions of the Lodha panel, the apex court has directed the cricket governing body to respond to the panel's report before October 6.

The panel, formulated in the wake of the 2013 IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal, had recommended a set of sweeping reforms for the BCCI, including adopting the "one state, one vote" policy, restricting the tenure of office bearers, introducing a cooling-off period for administrators, cutting down the present five-member selection panel to three among others.

Soon after the approval of the proposals, the panel had served two deadlines for BCCI - September 30 to make constitutional changes, and December 15 to form a nine-member apex committee that will replace the working committee.