IPL: The betting scandal and the first steps towards a cleanup

If the betting scandal that rocked the Indian Premier League IPL led to one tangible action it was the appointment of the Justice RM Lodha Committee by the Supreme Court of India on January 22 2015The committee was asked to recommend implementable actions to clean up the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI assess the quantum of punishment to be handed out to Gurunath Meiyappan the then team principal of the Chennai Super Kings and former Rajasthan Royals coowner Raj Kundra in the betting scandal and study the role of sports business executive Sundar Raman Justice Lodha submitted his report on July 14 2015The Lodha Committee followed the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee report on the allegations against Meiyappan whos also the soninlaw of former BCCI chief N Srinivasan the helmsman of India Cements which owns Chennai Super Kings and Jaipur IPL Cricket Pvt Ltd parent company of the Rajasthan Royals where Kundra held an 117 per cent stakeJustice Mudgal a retired Delhi High Court judge was assisted by the then Additional Solicitor General of India L Nageswara Rao and senior advocate and former cricket umpire Nilay Dutta They were later joined by former Team India captain and present BCCI President Sourav GangulyFollowing are the key recommendations of the Lodha Committee The IPL Governing Council needs to be reconstituted with more autonomy comprising not only representatives of the full members but also of franchisees players and an independent auditor A Governing Council with only nine members comprising three exofficio members the secretary treasurer and CEO of the BCCI two representatives of the BCCI members to be elected by the General Body two nominees of the franchisees one nominee being the Comptroller and Auditor Generals counsellor on the apex council and the other being a nominee of the players association According to this arrangement four out of nine members of the IPL Governing Council were to be independent of the BCCI thereby providing a muchneeded autonomy and balance in management of the most lucrative enterprise of the Board One of the two representatives of the members of BCCI elected by the General Body shall be the chairperson of the Governing Council The nominees of the franchisees were to be rotated annually and no franchisee would be represented again until all the others had a turn The committees commissions to be appointed under IPL Regulations AntiCorruption Code Code of Conduct Operational Rules and so on ought to consist of members selected by a panel consisting of the ombudsman the ethics officer and the CEO and presided over by the ombudsman This would ensure independence from the BCCI The committee recommended a 15day gap between the IPL and the national calendar It noted that many of the ills of Indian cricket have their roots in the state associations and their lack of proper administration The root cause for the problem was that the BCCI was making substantial annual grants without any oversight and so the status quo remained as it was with little effort by the provincial administrators The conflicts that arise by holding office in both the BCCI and the state associations ought to be brought to an end by an officebearer automatically vacating the post at the local level when elected to the BCCI Certain disqualifications had to be laid down that applied to those who sought office in the state associations along with limits on their tenures and terms It was necessary that there was uniformity in the constitution and functioning of the various associations without any office being created for life Membership of social clubs should be divorced from the administration of cricket which is a sombre task and cricketers should be made members and have a say in the governance of the sport and management made professional The state associations were to create avenues to generate revenue improve infrastructure and develop the sport all of which were to be marked on a detailed report card For a state association there was also to be an audit and independent oversight of how resources were allocated and spent It was necessary for all state associations to transition to the use of tamperproof accounting software that did not either permit alterations or recorded all alterations made The electoral process would have to be transparent and independent for which an Electoral Officer a retired Central or State Election Commissioner would have to be appointed In the event that no such person is available any other former State Election Commissioner preferably from a neighbouring state was to be appointedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever