Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'SC versus BCCI' that was published in Newsband

SC versus BCCI

The president and secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India have been removed for defying the Supreme Court’s order to accept reforms suggested by a court-appointed committee. None of this would have happened had the BCCI recognised the fact that the highest court was only seeking to reform the manner in which cricket is administered in the country. The price of such defiance is clear: the Supreme Court is now going to appoint a committee of administrators to supervise the board’s affairs.

As a young sports administrator, Thakur was presented with a great opportunity to make the Board function in a transparent and accountable manner. By defying the court Thakur has courted a double blow: the loss of power and authority as well as imminent punishment.

Rendering justice is Supreme Court’s ultimate role and the SC has always risen to the occasion and acted as a beacon to guide us. Its handling of the BCCI affairs will go down in legal history as exemplary. Frankly, it was a matter for the government (State or Centre) to intervene and clear the Augean stable. Unfortunately, an unholy alliance between business, politics and sports rendered any state action well nigh impossible. It was the corporatisation of cricket with questionable innovations like IPL and betting on the matches that drove it to levels beyond redemption. It also created ego problems among BCCI members who began to feel they were beyond control by any agency, including the SC. They defied, delayed and even thought of involving ICC deviously. SC was indeed aware of the murky dealings even while sitting in its chamber. It took the painful step of cutting the Board to size.

What the apex court has done is correct in present scenario. They meant to make cricket really gentlemen's game. If it is not in a position to respect the Supreme Court then who can control it? In fact BCCI has become a home for those who are greedy for money power and lacks transparency. It is a lesson to everyone that one must be transparent and obey the systems and laws though one has lots of money and power. Supreme Court once again came with an effective judgement to ensure that no one is above the law and everyone is answerable to the country, constitution and judiciary.

SC has served a bitter pill to the defiant. The BCCI has become one of the richest sports body which had been headed by the politicians for the obvious reasons. Our star cricketers of the past like Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath, Saurabh Ganguly and others are left only for expert comments on the game. Money is ruling the game. Anyhow the apex court has come to the rescue of the game.

The SC has, at last, taken some positive steps towards the control of affairs of the corruption-ridden BCCI. This should be an eye-opener to all other boards which are neck-deep in corruption. SC should ensure that its orders are followed by the board without any deviation and monitor the accountability of the board