Lodha verdict - 'Six months not enough time'

The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a hefty blow by bringing to earth the highflying Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). By asking the richest sports body in the country to fall in line and implement the Lodha Committee recommendations, the SC has sought to rein in the `arrogant' office-bearers, who till recently presumed that they were above the law.

The verdict has been monumental, but the difficult part is in implementing the various recommendations. The SC seems to be very serious about it as they have given a four-to-six month time frame for the BCCI to get its house in order.

However, former administrator PR Man Singh feels that six months is too short a period to bring in all the necessary changes. "In all fairness, it's too short a period. The BCCI officials have to get a hard copy of the verdict and then they will have to sit and discuss the changes that have to be made to their Constitution. That will take some time -maybe a month or so. After which, a Special General Body has to be called for -a notice of 21 days is needed for it. After the amendments are made in the meeting, another meeting will have to be called a month or so later to ratify the same.

"Once it is done, the same has to be sent to the Registrar of Societies and the amendments have to be incorporated in the Constitution. Only after this process, can the changes come into effect," Man Singh, who was the secretary of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) said here on Tuesday . "Any 'naughty' association can call for their Special GM towards the end of the six-month period and thereby ensure that the process gets delayed," he added.

Man Singh said that there was ambiguity about the recommendations and hence a lot of clarification will be required before things get streamlined. "Will the recommendations come into effect retrospectively or not? That's a big question which needs to be answered. Similarly , there are a few contentious issues and those need to be sorted out at the earliest so that the verdict is fully honoured," Man Singh, who was manager of the victorious Indian team which won the 1983 World Cup, said.

Citing the example of Karnataka, he said: "The KSCA have elections in the first week of August. What are they supposed to do? Do they go ahead with the elections or wait till the changes are made to their Constitution? Such tricky issues will surface in the next few months and answers have to be ready for that.

"Hence, I feel the Court should appoint a small body -a three-member panel etc -which will look into all such contentious issues and come up with ready solutions.

"One cannot keep on knocking on the doors of the SC for every small clarification. It will only lead to delays and dilute the purpose of this verdict," he added.