Supreme Court reserves order as BCCI seeks more time

ESPNcricinfo: The Supreme Court of India has reserved its order regarding the Lodha Committee’s status report, which had recommended that the BCCI office bearers be “superseded” and a panel of administrators be appointed to implement the court-approved recommendations.

The court observed on Monday that replacing the office bearers would be an “extreme measure”.

The lawyer representing the BCCI, Kapil Sibal, sought more time from the court to “persuade” the board’s state associations to implement the recommendations. He also said the BCCI could then provide evidence of the recommendations already implemented and a timeline for other recommendations to be put in place. The board had cited the unwillingness of its state associations to adopt the recommendations as the primary reason for not adopting the Lodha report in totality.

The court then asked the amicus curiae Gopal Subramanium about measures that could be used to get the board and the states to comply. Subramanium suggested that funding to the states be stopped until they implement the recommendations, and that future BCCI contracts go “through the medium” of the Lodha Committee to ensure they are compliant with the new recommendations.