The BCCI’s bluff in staging an emotional drama about a cloud hanging over the ongoing New Zealand series has been called by the Justice Lodha Committee. In clarifying there was no freeze on the board’s accounts for routine matters, the panel cleared the air over a threat to any series. The ploy to threaten cancellation of matches is part of a bundle of BCCI measures to defy the SC. It is a reflection of key BCCI officials’ attitude on administrative reforms.
The panel’s order to banks was only to freeze payment of dollops to state associations that the BCCI authorised by contravening an order of the SC-appointed panel. The board was told specifically what it should not do at its AGM last month and to stick to routine administrative matters, which it chose to ignore. The writing on the wall is clear after the court passed orders based on the panel’s recommendations. The BCCI top brass, to hang on to power, simply refused to accept them.
The board faces another day in court on October 6, after which its future may be better defined. Having decided to defy major policy directives from the panel, the board may be up against the court’s wrath that day. What its officials, led by a ruling party politician, are failing to understand is that directives on office-bearers’ terms and a compulsory cooling off period are intended to demonstrate that no one is indispensable. The BCCI’s men, however, appear to have delusions of invincibility.
