Supreme Court clips BCCI’s wings; gives Lodha Panel power to oversee financials

MUMBAI: Coming down heavily against the “defiant” BCCI, the Supreme Court on Friday sidelined the board giving the Lodha Panel power to oversee the financial matters of the board.

The Apex court has asked the Lodha panel to set a limit on monetary value of contracts. The board cannot enter into contracts above this monetary ceiling without the approval from the Lodha panel. This will also impact the future contracts relating to media rights and ground rights.

The order has come four days ahead of the IPL media rights auction, which was scheduled for October 25. The BCCI has been working on the IPL tender process since over a month trying to make a showcase of a “transparent” bidding process. It is not clear yet on how the court’s order will impact the auctions.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur, has also stopped BCCI from disbursing funds to state associations until they pass resolutions on implementation of the panel’s recommendations. The court has given the board time till December 3 to implement the recommendations of the Lodha committee.

Further, BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke have been asked to show their compliance with the recommendations before the Lodha committee and separately file affidavits in the court detailing the recommendations that have been accepted and implemented and those which are not.

The court has also asked the Lodha panel to appoint an independent auditor to scrutinise all accounts of the BCCI.