Bhubaneswar: The raging war between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Justice RM Lodha panel may continue till some more time, but what the board faced Monday, has never happened in its 86-year-old history. The Lodha panel ‘froze’ the BCCI accounts asking the bankers not to release any funds meant for various affiliated units, a situation, the BCCI officials never expected. The BCCI in its annals has faced many crises situations, but according to many of the officials, this is the worst case scenario.
The war continued Tuesday with the BCCI threatening to call off the ongoing series against New Zealand and even the ones following after it against England and Australia. The Lodha panel on its part came out with the clarification that it has not frozen any BCCI account but had just informed the board that it will not be able to make any financial transactions till the next order. The board has two accounts at Maharashtra Bank and the Yes Bank and according to rough estimates, the amounts total to `1,200 crore.
According to sources, the Lodha Panel asked the banks not to disburse funds to affiliated units simply because it came to know that that BCCI is trying to stash away a sizeable chunk of the cash with the units. In a recent emergent working committee meeting at Mumbai, September 30, it was decided that all the 30 affiliated units would be given `30 crore each as ‘ infrastructure development fund’. The money would remain with them and in this way the BCCI would be able to ‘protect’ `900 crore. Representatives of the various associations were informed about this plan and sworn to secrecy. But even then, a couple of officials who attended the meeting failed to keep their mouths shut and the news was ‘leaked’ to Justice Lodha.
The alleged plan was devised to protect the BCCI’s financial interest intact in case the October 6 ruling by the Supreme Court went against the body. The major chunk of BCCI’s fund would then be with the units with only `300 crore left in the two banks. And in this way, the BCCI would be able to control most of its savings. Realising this, the Justice Lodha-led panel carried out the pre-emptive strike to prevent the BCCI from transferring the major chunk of its funds.
Officials of the various affiliated units, however have feigned ignorance on this issue. So have the BCCI office-bearers. This is because they never expected Justice Lodha to adopt pre-emptive measures so quickly.
As things stand now, BCCI now has its back completely pasted to the wall. They have nowhere to go. It would be good for them if they comply with the reforms suggested by the Lodha panel. Otherwise, the future of the game will be at stake and players and fans will suffer.
PNN & Agencies