Bilal Handoo

SRINAGAR

farooq and imran insari
Dr Farooq Abdullah and Imran Ansari

In a bid to curb politics and bring transparency in the game, the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha panel has apparently set the scam-infested Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) free from politics—barring politicians to call shots in the cricket association.

The three-member panel headed by justice (retd) RM Lodha appointed last year following a sport-fixing scandal in Indian Premier League (IPL) has barred ministers, government officials from holding office in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“The fact that forces from politics and business see cricket administration as a stepping stone to recognition and publicity is irrelevant to the cricket fan,” said a 159-page report submitted to the Supreme Court for approval on Monday. “Until he (fan) realises, as many embittered souls recently have, that the game is not really being played on the cricket pitch.”

The need of the hour is, the report said, not cosmetic but fundamental change, “which will lay the proper foundations on which the BCCI can function in a professional and transparent manner and will bring the game of cricket back to its pristine form and restore the confidence of the people”.

The panel said no office-bearer can hold two offices, implying the incumbent JKCA boss and sports minister in Mufti government, Imran Ansari cannot continue as the honcho of the cricket body.

The committee also recommended a cap of three tenures of three years each for BCCI officials, with no two consecutive terms, and an age cap of 70—thus ending the road for 78-year-old Farooq Abdullah to bounce back as the state cricket chief.

To curb corruption, the panel recommended, the BCCI be brought under the Right to Information Act—“in which it will be bound to share administrative and financial details with the public”. This move, notably, was opposed by the Board previously citing its autonomy.

The recommendations have not only ended the game for both Farooq Abdullah and Imran Raza Ansari, but also put the ‘who’s the boss’ of JKCA controversy at rest—as it has recommended that a state unit can have only one full member at the top of the structure with voting rights in a general body.

Earlier a conflict of interest erupted in state cricket body after PDP’s Ansari floated a new “legal body recognised by BCCI”—the claim highly contested by NC patron Farooq Abdullah, who alleged that the master of “this game” is CM Mufti Sayeed himself. The row erupted weeks before Abdullah faced a CBI probe for his alleged involvement into the multi-crore-rupee cricket fund scam.

The JKCA scam surfaced in spring 2012 after reports said crores of rupees intended for promotion of the sport in the state were diverted to different accounts by JKCA office bearers with “mala fide” intention.

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