Supreme Court slams BCCI for not allocating funds to 11 states in last five years
The apex court said the money was being given without any rationale, adding that there should be distributive justice.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Board of Control for Cricket in India's allocation of funds to state cricket boards, saying it was being done without any rationale. As part of its affidavit on the Justice Lodha panel recommendations on structural reforms in Indian cricket, the BCCI submitted in court a detailed list of its fund allocation to states, reported ANI. The list showed that 11 states out of 29 did not receive any money from the BCCI in the last five years. It isn't clear yet which of the states did not receive money.
The apex court slammed the Indian cricket board and said that there should be distributive justice. "Why are 11 states penniless? Why should these states go begging?" it said, adding that "the impression one gets is that once [the] BCCI gives money to state boards without any rationale for spending, they in [a] way corrupt them".
NDTV reported the court as saying, "Your mandate is to promote the game and you have done nothing...Please don't say [the] Lodha committee recommendations cannot be implemented." On February 4, the court had suggested to the BCCI to fully accept the Lodha panel recommendations on the structural reforms in the world's richest cricket board.
The Supreme Court has to take a decision on implementing the recommendations of the Lodha panel report, which the BCCI has challenged. The cricket board has objected to several points made in the report, pointing out "the anomalies and difficulties encountered" in its implementation. The committee, constituted to look into the 2013 spot-fixing scandal, had recommended an overhaul of the BCCI, including changes to the sport body's power structure.