BCCI given deadline of 1 day to implement all Lodha Committee reforms

The Lodha Committee, headed by chief justice RM Lodha, had submitted a report to the Supreme Court in July, which contained a list of proposed changes to the administrative structure of the Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) and its member associations. But the BCCI chose to ignore most of those recommendations made by the committee on the sidelines of their emergent working committee meeting on Sept 30.

These decisions taken by the Board drew the ire of the Supreme Court, and on Thursday the BCCI was given a deadline date by the court. The BCCI needs to give an undertaking by Friday, October 7, that it will "unconditionally" implement all the court-approved recommendations of the Lodha Committee. In case the Board fails to submit the undertaking within the stipulated time, the court has indicated that it would pass an order to replace the board's office bearers with a panel of administrators.

The latest developments came after the three-judge bench headed by TS Thakur, the Chief Justice of India, heard arguments from both counsels of the BCCI and the Lodha Committee, on Thursday. The hearing was held for a submission of the BCCI's response, after the Lodha Committee filed a status report last week, which also had a recommendation that it wanted the BCCI office bearers to be superseded by other administrators.

The BCCI's legal counsel Kapil Sibal was instructed to check with the Board and respond by Friday.