BCCI must get in line

The BCCI’s top representatives would be well advised to meet the Lodha committee Tuesday and get instructions on implementing the reforms. Armed with the Supreme Court’s power, the three-member panel had ruled on the ills plaguing the cricket board. Instead of allowing good sense to prevail at this crucial juncture, the BCCI seems to have leaned on retired judge Markandey Katju, who is now a spout of opinions, mostly destructive, to produce a report that is so skewed as to spell doom for the board. It was the same kind of legal opinion that led the BCCI up the garden path in its long-running battle against the court. It is rather late in the day for the BCCI to stand up to the Supreme Court, which has told the board in no uncertain terms to reform or perish.

It’s fine for Justice Katju to hold any kind of opinion as long as it’s in his individual capacity. It’s when he offers an opinion on being hired by BCCI as its liaison between the board and the Lodha panel that the self-destructive nature of his extreme views begins to endanger reforms. The reforms process must be completed if the BCCI is be cleansed of the evils of hubris of past presidents, one of whom conducted an ego war in the Supreme Court while another’s doddering deposition before the Lodha panel exposed how such ageing personalities were clinging to power for themselves, than for the game’s welfare. In adding Mr Katju to this mix, the BCCI is in grave danger of imploding.