IPL verdict: Lodha committee's decision is exemplary, but bigger job is reforming BCCI

New Delhi: The verdict is exemplary. The activities of Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra corrupted the soul of the game and nothing short of an extraordinary punishment would have driven home the point. But after the Justice Lodha committee pronounced its verdict some questions linger  : Should the franchises, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, have been suspended for the lapses of their owners? Where does the order leave the players? Would not a provision for a change of management have worked? Why make millions of fans of both teams bear the brunt? Some of these will be answered once the BCCI decides to move court and there may be some relief for the players and fans. But the biggest question still to be addressed is when will the BCCI – the fount of all the troubles of the IPL and Indian cricket - change? The Lodha committee said a comprehensive process was on and it would be completed in due course. Besides the tough punishment for Gurunath and Kundra, this was one of the best takeaways from Justice Lodha’s post-verdict interaction with the media. [caption id=“attachment_2342912” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The committee headed by Justice RM Lodha on Tuesday. Naresh Sharma/ Firstpost[/caption] Reading out the committee’s report, Justice Lodha said it had found both Meiyappan (son-in-law of former BCCI president N Srinivasan) and Kundra (husband of Bollywood actress Shipa Shetty) guilty of betting. It has had an adverse impact and caused immeasurable harm to the image of the BCCI, the IPL and the game of cricket, he noted. Kundra has been declared ineligible for participating in cricket for five years and suspended for life from all cricket activities and association with BCCI. Both the suspensions are effective from Tuesday. The committee still has two responsibilities to fulfil. The Lodha panel was set a deadline of six months but with time running out, the committee may seek an extension to take a decision on IPL’s COO Sundar Raman and make recommendations to restructure the BCCI. Lodha committee was appointed after the Supreme Court had directed an independent committee to deliver the verdict citing two reasons - first, the apex body felt that it would be overreaching its jurisdiction if it were to impose the punishment by itself since the BCCI was an autonomous body. But at the same time, the Supreme Court didn’t want to leave the awarding of punishment to the BCCI and instead wanted to remove any apprehension of bias. Therefore it had set up the committee on 22 January, with three tasks to perform. · To decide punishment for those found guilty by the Justice Mukul Mudgal committee’s investigation. · To carry out a probe into allegations the Mudgal panel recommended be investigated further · To examine the way the BCCI functions and to suggest changes and improvement to make it more transparent and more responsive to the public at large. Justice Lodha made it clear in the judgement that his committee’s mandate was to safeguard the purity of the game. “We’re not mandated to look after the on criminal aspect…no crime liability has been examined by us.” Emphasizing the need for bringing reforms and the disciplinary role of BCCI, he said the cricket body has to give importance to disciplinary role to the game. “The role of IPL’s chief operating officer, Sunder Raman needs further investigation. As BB Mishra, who was looking into it, has recently retired, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has appointed Vivek Priyadarshi on 17 April. The examination report is awaited and further action will be initiated on the basis of it,” Justice Lodha said. The report has mentioned that the activities of CSK and RR officials have raised serious doubts of illegality and general distrust among cricket lovers on the game of cricket. Speaking on the reforms part, Justice Lodha said, “Regarding reform parts, questionnaires have been circulated, and once the exercise gets completed, we’ll get back. Our idea is to get all the stakeholders – not just the politicians or sportspersons, but the sports writers, editors, journalists, etc on board, so that they can share inputs with us.” “We feel our decision must reflect on the institutional reform in a paramount way…,” Justice Lodha emphasized, while signing-off. The report has slammed the India Cements of which Srinivasan is the managing director. However, Srinivasan has reportedly told the media that he had no role to play in CSK and why should he quit from his present post of chairman of International Cricket Council over this issue. Aditya Prakash Verma, the secretary of the Cricket Association of Bihar who took on Srinivasan, told Firstpost, “I’m satisfied with the committee’s verdict. The question is not about life ban or two years of sentence, but the importance is all about sentencing the guilty. Srinivasan has no morality and due to him the game has virtually lost its credibility. The present BCCI committee should call back Srinivasan and initiate legal action against him. If the BCCI fails to do so, we’ll move court.”