Justice (retd.) Lodha pins hope on new BCCI administrators

Justice (Retd.) R.M. Lodha on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to appoint new administrators for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), saying he hopes that the new four-member panel would help in implementation of recommendations across the cricket board and state associations.

"It is a very good committee. Large panel of names was presented before the Supreme Court and the best suitable members were selected for the job. Four names which have been selected are very good and they must help in implementation of our report which have been accepted by the Supreme Court," Justice (Retd.)Lodha told the reporters.

The apex court earlier in the day appointed former Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai to head the BCCI, along with noted historian Ramachandra Guha, managing director of IDFC Limited Vikram Limaye and former captain of the women's cricket team Diana Edulji as other administrators.

Justice (retd.)Lodha, however, clarified that the new panel is an interim arrangement, which is intended to work until the reforms suggested by them are put in place.

"CAG nominee will be member of apex council, but this is not apex council but committee of administrators. This is interim arrangement intended to work until the reforms suggested by us and accepted by Supreme Court are put in place," the 67-year-old said.

"I believe that under the watchful eye of Supreme Court, the committee of administrators must go ahead and ensure that the timelines which are fixed they are maintained and the things go ahead accordingly," he added.

Talking about the challenges that the new BCCI administrators would face, Justice (retd.) Lodha said they need to ensure that the cricket board and the state associations' bi laws are amended in-line with recommendations made by the committee.

"There are big challenges because the first thing that they have to ensure is that as per the decision of the Supreme Court accepting our report, the bi-laws are amended. For that, they need to ensure that the BCCI and the state associations' bi laws are amended in-line with recommendations made by the committee and accepted by the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the top court also declined Centre's request to appoint secretary of sports ministry as member of the committee.

The Supreme Court had on January 2 removed Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke from their respective posts of BCCI president and board secretary for their failure to bring transparency and accountability to the Indian cricket board and their non-compliance of the court's July 18, 2016 order.