New Delhi: As former India captain Sourav Ganguly took charge as the 39th president of the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) and promised a corruption-free tenure, it has emerged that the Supreme Court’s four-year stint running Indian cricket has cost the board about Rs 16 crore.
In an order passed Tuesday, a Supreme Court bench led by Justice S.A. Bobde ended the tenure of the Committee of Administrators (CoA), which was appointed to manage the BCCI’s affairs in 2017. Before that, the court had dismissed the BCCI administration led by Anurag Thakur for failing to implement the reforms recommended by the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee that the court had set up in 2015.
The court detailed the remuneration the BCCI will have to pay CoA members for their services, as well as travel and accommodation reimbursements, as detailed below.
CoA’s remuneration
CoA chairman Vinod Rai and former India women’s captain Diana Edulji, both of whom have been members since the formation of the committee, have to be paid Rs 3.5 crore each for their 33-month tenures. Lt Gen. Ravi Thodge (retd), who joined the committee about eight months ago, is to be paid about Rs 1 crore.
Two of the four original members of the CoA, historian Ramachandra Guha and banker Vikram Limaye, are also entitled to remuneration, though they have declined to accept any. Guha’s four months on the committee entitle him to a payment of Rs 40 lakh, while Limaye, who quit to become managing director & CEO of the National Stock Exchange, served for eight months and was entitled to Rs 80 lakh.
Guha’s departure from the CoA was controversial. Although he cited personal reasons for it, his resignation letter had taken the BCCI to task for failing to address the conflict of interest issue with regards to players and coaches holding multiple positions. He had also criticised the removal of Anil Kumble as head coach of the men’s national team, saying his tenure should’ve been extended.
Apart from these remunerations, the Supreme Court bench also ordered the BCCI to pay for board-related travel — business class fares for air travel, AC first class for train travel and AC vehicles for local transport. It also told the BCCI to pay for accommodation in case of overnight stay at outstation locations.
Also read: Another BCCI farce: All CAC members resign over ‘conflict’, but decisions not under review
Lodha Committee costs
The Lodha Committee had come with its own set of costs. Appointed by the SC in 2015, it comprised of former Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha and former Supreme Court judges R.V. Raveendran and Ashok Bhan.
According to documents accessed by ThePrint, a total amount of Rs 6 crore was spent on the Lodha Committee and its activities. This included both direct expenses on committee members and indirect expenses incurred.
The direct expenses, which included the remuneration to the committee members as well as their travel/hotel/miscellaneous expenses, added up to Rs 2.86 crore. Lodha, Raveendran and Bhan were paid Rs 62.50 lakh, Rs 65.71 lakh and Rs 67.12 lakh respectively.
Supreme Court advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who was secretary to the committee, was paid a remuneration of Rs 21.59 lakh, while Aman Bansal, Bhan’s legal assistant, was paid Rs 4.95 lakh.
While the members of the committee were entitled to Rs 1.5 lakh per meeting, the secretary to the committee drew a remuneration of Rs 1.5 lakh per month.
Thee travel/hotel and miscellaneous expenses amounted to Rs 64.19 lakh.
The indirect expenses incurred for the committee amounted to Rs 3.22 crore, which included the money spent on other legal advisers and matters.
Also read: Indian cricket should be run by administrators, not Supreme Court, says Gautam Gambhir
1 crore for 8 months. One must ask what experience did these guys have to warrant such expenses? Isn’t this the a fraudulent behavior. And most importantly, what did all the nominees achieve so far? I would go to extent of calling this “Corruption, sanctioned by the Supreme court”.
From the dictionary: Cor·rup·tion “dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power”
Great to see an article with details and remunerations. Transparency naturally leads to accountability, and more transparency. These experienced judges, administrators and lawyers deserve to be well compensated as they have foregone other opportunities to serve the judiciary. Even more thankful the SC did not get people with low integrity through a L1 tender system. We would have had a bunch of fixers from Delhi.