NEW DELHI — The influential Indian cricket board (BCCI) is facing a possible leadership crisis after the country’s Supreme Court demanded it accept sweeping changes by Friday.
The BCCI finds itself on a sticky wicket after it agreed to implement only part of a raft of changes recommended by a court-appointed panel, which was set up last year to usher in reforms at the world’s richest cricket board.
The panel, headed by former chief justice of India RM Lodha, recommended, among other things, age and tenure restrictions for top officials as well as banning them from serving successive terms.
“We will pass an appropriate order tomorrow if the BCCI refuses to give any undertaking (to accept the reforms),” Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur said Thursday.
A disgruntled administrator at the Cricket Association of Bihar, which is not recognized by the BCCI, had approached the top court, demanding transparency in the board’s operations.
The court made it clear that the BCCI, run largely by politicians and industrialists, could not cherry pick recommendations by the Lodha panel.
“You behave like lords. Fall in line or else we will make you,” the chief justice said last week after the panel recommended ousting the BCCI’s highest officials for non-compliance.
The panel blocked the BCCI from making two payments to its state associations Tuesday, while approving routine expenditure, with the home series against New Zealand underway.
The BCCI has yet to reply to a request from Reuters to comment on the Supreme Court’s deadline to accept reforms by Friday.
India ODI squad
India’s 15-member squad named Thursday for the first three games of the five-match one-day series against New Zealand beginning in Dharamsala on October 16 is as follows:
Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey, Jayant Yadav, Axar Patel, Suresh Raina, Jasprit Bumrah, Kedar Jhadav, Mandeep Singh, Amit Mishra, Dhawal Kulkarni, Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya.
War games in Bangladesh ahead of England battle
Bangladeshi army commandos abseiled into the national stadium Thursday in a show of strength designed to reassure England’s cricketers over their security on the eve of the opening ODI of their controversial tour.
More than a dozen commandos scaled down ropes from helicopters hovering over the nets at Dhaka’s Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, which is hosting the first two games in a three-match series beginning Friday night.
The side is being skippered by Jos Buttler after regular one-day captain Eoin Morgan decided not to go on the tour in the wake of an attack by militants earlier this year on a cafe full of foreigners.
Twenty-two people were killed in July’s assault on the Holey Artisan Cafe in Dhaka’s upmarket Gulshan district, casting doubt over whether Bangladesh’s security forces could guarantee the England team’s safety.
But speaking to reporters Thursday, Buttler insisted there had been no sense of unease among the players since they had arrived last weekend.
“Everything has been in good order. Travel to and from the ground has been great for us although I’m sure it’s been a bit frustrating for the locals,” he said in reference to road closures ordered on security grounds.
Reg Dickason, the England board’s security chief who endorsed the tour after a field trip to Bangladesh, expressed his satisfaction Thursday with the safety measures.
While Morgan has stayed home, Alistair Cook will fly out later to take charge of the team for two Test matches that follow the three ODIs, the last of which is being held in the port city of Chittagong.
