BCCI vs Lodha panel: Supreme Court adjourns hearing till 14 December

There was no headway in the BCCI-Lodha panel case on Friday as well, with the Supreme Court adjourning the hearing till 14 December. The hearing was earlier scheduled for 5 December, but had to be postponed as Chief Justice of India, TS Thakur, was unwell. [caption id=“attachment_3148164” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] With another adjournment in the hearing, it looks like there is still time before the controversy dies down. AFP[/caption] The Lodha panel, in its report on 28 September, had called for all of BCCI’s current office bearers to be replaced by a group of independent administrators, which they later amended by asking for the disqualification of office bearers of the BCCI and all state associations, who become ineligible according to the apex court’s 18 July order. In addition, the panel also proposed the appointment of former Union home secretary GK Pillai in the capacity of ‘observer’. The BCCI was told by the apex court to “fall in line or we will make you fall in line”, after its continued reluctance over implementing the Lodha recommendations. The main points of discord have been over the age cap of 70 years on administrators, cooling off period of three years between terms and the one state one vote policy. The BCCI had said that it had accepted most of the recommendations of the Lodha panel, but put the rejection of the few recommendations down to the disagreement of the state associations over it. The apex court’s order that barred the BCCI and state units from utilising funds until they implement the Lodha recommendations in full has also not been accepted by the majority. With another adjournment in the hearing, it looks like there is still some time before the the controversy dies down. For the Indian cricket fraternity, on the other hand, the wait gets prolonged.