Supreme Court seeks details of India-England Tests revenues

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Lodha panel, lawyer Gopal Shankarnarayan alleged revenues from matches were going to state associations in return for using their stadiahas told the Indian cricket board to submit accounts of revenues from ongoing India-England test matches after the Lodha panel alleged that the collections were going into the coffers of state associations in defiance of court orders.

A bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chadrachud, on Wednesday directed Board for Control of Cricket in India ( BCCI) to submit details of revenues from the ongoing matches, even as it allowed the board to release funds for the remaining two test matches in the series.

The decision came after secretary of the Lodha panel, lawyer Gopal Shankarnarayan alleged revenues from matches were going to state associations in return for using their stadia, circumventing the court orders to BCCI to choke off funds to those state associations that do not come on board for reforms recommended by Lodha panel to make the board’s functioning more transparent and accountable.

The top court had barred BCCI from sanctioning any further funds for state bodies after the cash-rich board claimed that it could only change its articles of association and other bylaws with the support of its member state associations and that most of them were averse to carrying out these reforms.

The bench will hear the case again on December 9 when it will take up the BCCI’s continued defiance to carry out the Lodha panel reforms.