Lodha Panel report: Supreme Court slams BCCI over allocation of funds, says it has done nothing for cricket

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday hit out at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the poor state of cricket in the country.

Hearing Indian board's appeal against the sweeping reforms suggested by Lodha panel, the apex court said BCCI's mandate is to promote cricket in the country but it has not done anything to develop it.

The SC also questioned BCCI’s allocation of funds to the states and said that the funds were distributed like a ‘mutually beneficial society’ without any rationale.

Lauding the work done by Justice R M Lodha-led committee for bringing out massive structural change in functioning of BCCI, the bench said “this is not an ordinary panel. It is a committee on which we have complete faith. It is committee of judges and its findings have to be relied upon. We cannot say that the findings are perverse.” “They have come after consultations with the experts and a wide spectrum of people and the recomendations have been given by a former CJI who have experience and they have arrived at some conclusions,” a bench comprising Justices T S Thakur and F M I Khalifulla said. 

During the hearing, the court wanted to know whether any cases of misappropriation and FIR has been lodged by the BCCI. Senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the BCCI, said an FIR was filed pertaining to the funds allocation to Jammu and Kashmir cricket board and that Assam has not filed the statement of account. The bench also said “Rs 570 crores is distributed every year and next time it will be Rs 1000 crores. There must be a system to check embezzlement, siphoning. You cannot allow the siphoning and misappropriation of funds.” 

The BCCI presented a report in the SC on its plans to implement the recommendations made by the panel headed by retired chief justice RM Lodha in order to prevent sporting frauds and conflict of interests.

Ever since Lodha panel submitted its report to the SC, voices from all corners have raised serious concerns over its recommendations.

The Lodha Panel was set up in January 2015 by the apex court to determine appropriate punishments against those who were accused in the IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal.

The three-member committee, comprises of Lodha and retired Supreme Court judges Ashok Bhan and R Raveendran.

(With PTI inputs)