SC directs BCCI not to give funds to states averse to reforms

TIL Desk Sports/ Cracking the whip on a “defiant BCCI” for not implementing the Justice R M Lodha Committee directions, Supreme Court on Friday restrained the cash-rich cricket body from disbursing funds to state bodies any further till they filed affidavits promising to abide by the panel’s recommendations in “letter and spirit”.

The apex court, which warned the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from “precipitating” the issue, also directed its President Anurag Thakur to explain by filing “personal affidavit”, the allegation that he had asked the ICC in a communication to say that implementation of the apex court-ordered reforms would amount to govermental interference and lead to BCCI’s disqualification from international cricket.

Long-standing cricket administrator Ratnakar Shetty, currently BCCI’s General Manager (cricket operation), was also directed by the top court to come clear by placing on affidavit copies of the document and BCCI resolution that authorised him to file affidavits on its behalf before the Lodha panel, which had passed a slew of directions for massive restructuring of cricket bodies in the country.