Lodha wants Vinod Rai to continue leading the Committee of Administrators

In January 2017, the Supreme Court had appointed former CAG Vinod Rai as the chairman of the CoA, whose main responsibility was to ensure that the Lodha reforms are implemented properly. Cricket historian Ramachandra Guha, former women cricketer Diana Edulji, and banker Vikram Limaye were also appointed as the administrators to run the BCCI, but Guha and Limaye had to resign due to various reasons.

However, as things stand now, the committee has found themselves in a limbo after failing to bring the reforms to effect, which has happened mainly because of the non-cooperation of the BCCI officials.

Knowing that Rai is a practical roadblock on their way now, the old guards of the Indian board have raised the issue that as the administrator will turn 70 on May 23, he shouldn't continue in his role. Their logic stems from the fact that since they are not allowed to remain an office-bearer once they reach the age of 70, as per Justice Lodha committee's recommendations, the same yardstick should be applicable to Rai. And the reports had also emerged that the old guard has been mulling to raise the issue in the Supreme Court to ensure Rai’s exit from CoA. However, Justice Lodha is not convinced with this argument and wants Rai to continue in the board.

"The reforms were supposed to have been implemented by September last year and CoA was picked by the Honorable Supreme Court for this reason. But since that hasn't happened, Vinod Rai should stay at the helm of affairs. This is the order of the highest court of the land. I don't think it would be appropriate to make him leave," Lodha told ToI.

"When the apex court appointed Rai as the head of CoA, he wasn't above 70. He was given a mandate to implement the reforms. Till the time the reforms aren't implemented, Rai should continue in his post," Lodha explained.

The current BCCI office-bearers - acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and acting treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary – gave it in writing to the Supreme Court that they would push the state associations hard to implement the reforms, but truth be told, they actually did the exact opposite and that was sufficient to angry the Lodha committee. 

"Implementing the reforms isn't the responsibility only of CoA. Even the office-bearers should play their roles to implement the reforms, which is again as per the apex court's order. The fact that the office-bearers haven't done much has delayed the implementation process," Lodha said.