Clean-up job

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators has gone to work in cleaning up cricket administration in this country. Earlier this week, the administrators closed the offices of former BCCI president Anurag Thakur and Secretary, Ajay Shirke, and officials associated with the two also shown the door. On January 30, the court appointed former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai the head of a four-member committee to run the BCCI till the Lodha reforms are fully implemented, and fresh elections are held.

Both Thakur and Shirke were removed from their BCCI positions for failing to follow up on the recommendations of the court-appointed Justice Lodha committee. Some have argued that the Apex Court has gone way beyond its constitutional brief to try and impose its writ. It is not the court's place to decide how the BCCI or cricket should be administrated, they argue. The other side, meanwhile, claims that the BCCI is a cosy cartel of vested interests, whose only interests are to protect its massive profits. It is indeed a corrupt body that desperately needs reform after a spate of corruption scandals. There was little done to facilitate the clean-up process. The former BCCI administration had failed to respect the directives and openly flouted the proposed norms, leaving the court with little choice but to drop the axe.