The Supreme Court on Monday took the drastic step of sacking BCCI President Anurag Thakur. Ajay Shirke, the BCCI secretary, was also removed. The court will appoint two observers to conduct the business in two weeks. Until then, the two senior most vice-presidents of the sports body would be in charge of running the board affairs. The court has also issued notices asking why contempt and perjury cases should not be registered against them. Why did this happen?
In July last year, the Supreme Court ordered proper implementation of Lodha panel recommendations that called for sweeping changes in the structure of BCCI and the way it functioned. The BCCI that had been opposing the changes remained defiant despite the court order.
In August, Justice RM Lodha, who head the panel, invited BCCI top brass to discuss the implementation of the reforms. They didn’t meet them. Later, Shirke met the panel. The first deadline for its implementation was set to be September 30.
On September 28, the Lodha Panel submitted its status report to the apex court, stating that the BCCI was not implementing the reforms intentionally. Accusing the BCCI top brass of obstruction, the panel recommended that its top notch officials should be sacked. CJI TS Thakur made a strong observation against the BCCI and warned it to fall in line.
Meanwhile, ICC chief executive Dave Richardson said in an interview that Thakur had asked ICC chief Shashank Manohar to issue a letter to BCCI, questioning the inclusion of government’s representative the CAG in the functioning of the board. He further said Manohar had refused to oblige Thakur in the absence of a formal communication in this regard. The court asked Thakur to clarify whether he sought ICC intervention in the matter.
Thakur later filed an affidavit in the court saying why he just wanted a clarification in this regard and that he didn’t want ICC intervention in the matter. On December 15, the court observed that prima facie Thakur had committed perjury.
The Lodha panel maintained throughout that the BCCI top brass had to go as they were not cooperating in the implementation of the reforms.
All these events led to his removal on January 2, 2017.
