Hogwired All about sports The Lodha Committee doesn’t seem to take things lightly. In another move to put curbs on the cricket governing body BCCI, the committee sent emails to two different banks. In the email, Lodha Committee directed the banks to stop disbursing any funds from BCCI accounts to the accounts of 25 state associations which is contrary to the decision taken by BCCI’s SGM held last Saturday.
The Lodha Committee has already showered criticism on BCCI’s top brass for not adhering to a number of points in the July 18th Judgement in their AGM. The Lodha Committee further asked the apex court to intervene and supersede the present office bearers and further urged the Supreme Court to appoint a new set of administrators to run the board’s affairs with immediate effect. From the current state of affairs its looks imminent that after the BCCI submits its status report to the apex court on October 6th, the Supreme Court might pull the curtains for the current administrators of BCCI which includes the likes of heavyweights Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke.
News reports from Express News Service suggest that BCCI in its emergency working committee decided that the board has to distribute the amount which was refunded to them by the broadcasters because of the cancellation of the Champions League T20. It was decided that an amount of Rs 19 crores will be sent to each of the 25 state units. But an email from the Lodha Committee secretary Gopal Sankaranarayanan to Yes Bank and Bank of Maharashtra with which BBCI ’s accounts said that ‘disbursement of these amounts are not routine’ and also directed these two banks not to honour these transactions. This particular email from Lodha Committee was also copied to CEO Rahul Johri, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and secretary Ajay Shirke, said Lodha committee secretary Gopal Sankaranarayanan.
According to Indian Express News reports, Gopal Sankaranarayanan in his email has written, “It has come to the notice of this Committee that certain decisions have been taken at the ‘Emergent Working Committee’ meeting on 30th September 2016 to disburse large funds to the various member associations. You are aware that by way of this Committee’s direction dated 31.8.2016, no further decisions were to be taken regarding the future apart from routine matters. The disbursement of these amounts are not routine, and in any case, not emergent.”
According to Sankaranarayanan, the “first set of guidelines’ which the board has violated also includes the ‘fund disbursement policy’.
After its recent SGM on Saturday BCCI released a press statement in which it had stated that it has unanimously adopted nine of the committee’s recommendations. It had however excluded the contentious ‘one state one vote’ policy, the fixed tenures for BCCI officials and the age-limit for their eligibility.
It will be interesting to see what the apex court decides after BCCI submits its status report on Saturday. In all likelihood, the Supreme Court will accept the Lodha Committee’s prayer to the apex court to appoint a new panel in place of the present board officials and also render all the decisions taken to post the July 18 verdict as ‘ineffective’.
According to a recent news report by Reuters Lodha Committee further clarifying its stand has confirmed that It has barred India’s cricket board (BCCI) from making two payments from its bank accounts but adds that the board is otherwise free to use its funds for “routine expenditure”.
