Man Of Steel

Former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, who was tasked by the Supreme Court to clean up the cricket administration in the wake of the 2013 spot-fixing scandal, is arguably the most reformist administrator that Indian sports has ever seen.

- Jasvinder Sidhu

JAN. 2 was the first working day of 2017. But for the top management of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), it turned out to be the Ides of January. On that day, the Supreme Court of India delivered a hammer blow by sacking the key functionaries of the richest cricket body in the world and its state associations, including its president, Anurag Thakur, and secretary, Ajay Shirke, for failing to implement the recommendations of the Lodha Committee, which the court had accepted in its judgment on July 18, 2016. In the Jan. 2 order, a Supreme Court (SC) bench headed by Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur, Justice A.M. Khanwilikar and Justice Dr D.Y. Chandrachud read out the riot act at the way the BCCI’s top functionaries had tried to play hardball with the court. “Shri Anurag Thakur, President of BCCI and Shri Ajay Shirke, Secretary, BCCI shall forthwith cease and desist from being associated with the working of BCCI...

A notice to show cause shall issue to Mr. Anurag Thakur to explain why he should not be proceeded against under the provisions of Section 195 read with Section 340 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973...A notice to show cause shall issue to Mr. Anurag Thakur to explain why he should not be proceeded with under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971,” said the order. Stripped of the legalese, it means the court has asked why no action should be taken against the former president for perjury and submitting a misleading affidavit in the court and defying the orders of the highest court in India.