Supreme Court names new administrators for BCCI

30 Jan 2017

The Supreme Court today announced the appointment of four new administrators to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) after rejecting all nine names proposed by Amicus Curiaes Gopal Subramanian and Anil Diwan for selection as BCCI's new administrators.

The apex court appointed former CAG Vinod Rai as the new head of BCCI, the world's richest cricketing body, along with Ramachandra Guha, Vikram Limaye and Diana Edulji as the other members.

Vinod Rai is a former CAG himself, Ramachandra Guha is a noted historian and Vikram Limaye is CEO of Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation while Diana Edulji is a former Indian women's cricket skipper and the only one representing players in the committee.

The court also appointed a three-member committee comprising BCCI joint secretary Amitabh Choudhary, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry and Limaye to represent the Indian cricket board at the three-day International Cricket Council (ICC) meet starting on 2 February.

Historian and columnist Ramachandra Guha, however, has good knowledge of cricket and has written several books about the sport.

The Supreme Court had, earlier this month, removed BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke for failing to implement administrative reforms prescribed by the Justice RM Lodha committee that looked into the working of BCCI.

The apex court had accepted most of the recommendations of a three-member panel set up to investigate the BCCI following a match fixing scandal during the 2013 Indian Premier League 20-20 competition.

BCCI rejected some of the recommendations made by the Lodha panel, including age and tenure restrictions for top officials as well as banning them from serving successive terms.

The committee of administrators, to be chaired by Rai, will take immediate charge and run the board in liaison with BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri until new officials are elected.

The Supreme Court had last week sought response from the centre on a petition seeking to form a Lodha panel-like committee to look into the working of other sports bodies in the country.

A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar wanted the new committee to probe if there is any kind of corruption and irregularities in any sports organisations in the country.