New Delhi: To ensure greater transparency in cricket administration and to restore the game’s purity, the Justice Lodha committee has suggested sweeping reforms in the working of the BCCI.
The panel, set up by the Supreme Court, recommended that ministers and government officials be barred from being office-bearers in the BCCI and also introduced the concept of “one person, one post” in cricket administration.
It said the Supreme Court had left it in no doubt about its grave concern about the place in which Indian cricket finds itself today. The “cloud over the working of the BCCI” has left followers of the game “worried and deeply suspicious about what goes on in the name of the game”.
The panel headed by former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, in its report submitted to the Supreme Court registry on Monday, said: “Cricket is a national sport that connects the people of India in a unique way. The BCCI, which administers the game in the nation, however, continues to be mired in one controversy after another.” The panel recommended legalising betting with strong safeguards and criminalising match and spot fixing in cricket.
Legalise betting, panel tells Govt
Pointing out that worldwide legal sports betting market is worth over $400 billion, the Justice Lodha panel has recommended to the Union government to enact a law to legalise betting in sports including cricket in India.
In its final report the panel which had advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan as its secretary, said as far as betting is concerned, many of those who deposed before the Committee were of the view that it would serve both the game and economy if it were legalised as has been done in the United Kingdom.
However, with the interest of cricket being foremost in our minds, it would always be necessary to protect and invoke transparency from those involved in the game. While it is our recommendation that the legislatures ought to legalise betting in cricket, these must be with the following safeguards: Betting by administrators, players, match officials, team officials, owners, etc., will be barred and should continue to be an offence under the BCCI and IPL Rules & Regulations.
With only horse-racing legally permissible in India, those interested in betting have gone underground, with illegal bookies managing affairs. As is inevitable, the hawala system has awakened to these channels and money laundering has also become an inevitable outcome.
On match and spot-fixing, the panel said: “Betting is a general malaise indulged by different sections of society. While the issue of betting can be effectively dealt with by providing a legal framework, match/ spot-fixing is neither pardonable nor a matter for regulation.”
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