NEW DELHI: After nearly nine decades, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be led by a Committee of Administrators, when the Supreme Court nominates personnel to the COA via an order on Friday, January 20, instead of January 19 as originally decreed.
“The case has been listed for January 20 and I am speaking to my lawyers as petitioner that I will also propose a few names for administrators’ post,” Aditya Verma, secretary of unsanctioned Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), told media here Wednesday.
The COA will be constituted as per the recommendations of the senior counsel and amicus curiae, Gopal Subramaniam, and senior counsel Anil B Divan.
There is a possibility that an eminent member from the judiciary (Justice (Retd) Mukul Mudgal?) is entrusted with the job, apart from a member of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India and a former cricketer.
The Supreme Court’s order of January 2 and January 3 stated that the COA will oversee the BCCI’s administration through its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and that “it will have the power to issue all appropriate directions to facilitate due supervision and control.”
The order also stated that the COA will “ensure that the directions contained in the judgment of this Court, dated 18 July 2016 (accepted and with modifications), are fulfilled and to adopt all necessary and consequential steps for that purpose.”
The apex court’s statements were in response to the third Status Report submitted by the Justice RM Lodha Committee that authored the cricket report which recommends radical reforms.
Two days ago, Justice Lodha, who was in Mumbai in connection with the 97th birth anniversary of the late eminent jurist, Nani Palkhivala, hinted that there could be layers of administrators and that fresh timelines would be given to the BCCI and its full members to amend their Memorandum of Association (MOA) and Rules and Regulations in line with the recommendations made by his committee.
The name of Justice Mudgal, who probed the IPL malpractices and supervised the India-South Africa Test match at the Ferozeshah Kotla in 2015, has been doing the rounds for a top position in the COA.
It bears noting that Subramaniam had initially proposed the names of former Union Home Secretary GK Pillai, former India cricketer Mohinder Amarnath and former CAG chief Vinod Rai as the panel of administrators to oversee the functioning of the BCCI.
