Reforms will bring transparency, accountability into the administration, attested Justice RM Lodha
Justice RM Lodha while criticising BCCI president Sourav Ganguly for trying to modify his reforms urged to let the reforms work and wait for their results. Lodha also pointed out that the CoA was 3 years late in implementing the reforms as he shared that two elections should have happened by now.
In the first AGM under BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, the board has decided upon some crucial amendments to the body’s constitution including scraping of cooling off period for office bearers and the conflict of interest clause. Responding to the governing bodies actions, Justice RM Lodha, head of the committee which suggested the reforms in the first place, lashed out on Ganguly.
While the changes are yet to be approved by the Supreme Court, Justice Lodha went all out on the BCCI administration for suggesting such amendments. While calling it “unfortunate”, Lodha claimed that had the reforms not been introduced cricketers couldn’t even dream of presiding over the body as he urged the board to let the reforms work and behold its outcomes.
"It’s very unfortunate. I thought a cricketer at the helm of affairs will understand that it was only our reforms which brought him to this position,” Lodha told Hindustan Times. "If the earlier system was in vogue, perhaps no cricketer could have ever dreamt of heading a body like the BCCI. The way the politics is played in cricket administration, I don’t think any cricketer would have been able to get this position but for these reforms.
"That’s all the more reason for those in charge now to respect the reforms and try to fully implement them, instead of changing them. Let reforms work over a period of time and see how transparency, accountability come into the administration."
Lodha also criticised the Committee of Administrators, led by Vinod Rai, for taking a lot of time to implement the reforms.
"They took a lot of time in implementation,” Lodha said. “Their job was to implement the SC order by which our committee’s report was accepted. It should have been done a long time back. They took three years. As a matter of fact, the second election should have been due by this time because the first order was passed in July, 2016. The first election after reforms has taken place in 2019."