Mumbai: The Supreme court on Monday appointed a four-member panel to administer Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which was primarily in power of only one position. i.e. the president of BCCI. Ex – Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai, Historian Ramachandra Guha, IDFC Managing Director Vikram Limaye and former Captain of Indian Women’s cricket team Diana Edulji are new administrators who will run BCCI.
This verdict was a well awaited one. The Court had asked BCCI to suggest names for the administrators after nine names suggested by the two member panel of Gopal Subramaniam and Anil Divan was deemed to be ‘too many’ by the court.
The case was deferred to January 30 after the BCCI and centre argued that they too should be allowed to submit the names in sealed envelopes for consideration.
On the other hand the three-judge bench of Justices Dipak Mishra, A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, allowed BCCI to short list three names from their current office bearers who still qualify to represent BCCI in the ICC executive meeting from February 2.
On January 30, with the final verdict of appointing the four member panel to administer BCCI, apex court also cleared two names to represent BCCI at the ICC meeting, to be held in the first week of February. The two names cleared by the Court are, Amitabh Chaudhary and Vikram Limaye, BCCI Joint Secretary.
In the verdict, the top court has also mentioned that Rai will head the four-man panel of administrators. The new panel is going to work on the reforms and changes suggested by the Justice RM Lodha recommendations. Now only time will tell the future of BCCI.
The fact that the board is now under the clutches of Rai and three other notable citizens of the country, it remains to be seen what direct impact it has on the running of the show in the months to come.
(With inputs from NDTV)