Supreme Court puts BCCI president in a spot

The Supreme Court has put BCCI president Anurag Thakur in what could be a difficult position by asking him to submit a “personal affidavit” to clarify whether he had sought ICC intervention against the implementation of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations.

Last month ICC chief executive Dave Richardson had told India Today that Thakur had verbally asked the ICC for a letter asking whether implementing one of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations would constitute government interference in the BCCI. The Lodha Committee had said that one of the nine members on the Apex Council should be a nominee from the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office, a government organisation. The ICC does not permit any government interference in its member boards.

Richardson had said that ICC chairman Shashank Manohar, Thakur’s predecessor at the BCCI, had refused to intervene unless the Indian board put its request in writing.

Amicus Curiae Gopal Subramanium had drawn the Supreme Court’s attention to the issue while reading out from the Lodha Committee’s status report on Thursday. “Interview aired by media with ICC CEO David Richardson showing that President BCCI had requested ICC to issue a letter stating that the intervention by this Hon’ble Court amounted to Governmental interference,” the status report said.

Subramanium told the court that the BCCI had denied that Thakur had asked the ICC for a letter and instead said Richardson was “confused”. “It is being incorrectly alleged that the President BCCI made a request to the ICC to issue a letter stating that this Committee amounts to Governmental interference. …

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