Anurag Thakur: BCCI has lost its reputation

Former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur on 22 November questioned the impact of the appointment of Committee of Administrators (CoA) on the autonomy and reputation of BCCI.

"It is not the same BCCI which it used to be about a year back," Thakur told ANI, claiming that the board "has lost its reputation, as well as revenue at the international level."

"I think it is the time to sit back and evaluate whether BCCI has achieved anything out of it (Lodha committee recommendations) or they have lost," he added.

Recalling his tenure in BCCI, Thakur said that under his presidentship, the BCCI had accepted close to 90 percent of the recommendations of Lodha Committee, but post his exit no recommendations have been accepted.

"On October 1 2016, we accepted close to 90 percent of the recommendations but in the last 11 months not even a single recommendation has been accepted," Thakur said.

"Unfortunately in the last 11 months despite me and Mr Ajay Shirke being removed from the BCCI, nothing changed," he added.

Addressing the conflict of opinions between the BCCI and the CoA, which has hampered the decision making procedure, Thakur said, "Sports lovers must evaluate whether BCCI is run by its elected office bearers or CoA, what was the role and jurisdiction of CoA and what we have gained out of it?" and added, "You can't have two power centres, you cannot have two different opinions within board."

On January 2, 2017, Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke were sacked for not implementing the recommendations of Lodha Committee, a panel formed under retired Supreme Court judge RM Lodha with the aim to bring reforms within the board.

On January 30 of the same year, the Supreme Court appointed a four-member panel Committee of Administrators (COA) in order to implement Lodha committee reforms.

Speaking on the Sports Ministry's order of a doping test to be conducted on cricketers by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA), Thakur opined that the test should not be forced on anyone, and that the cricketers' concerns should be heard and addressed by the BCCI.

Earlier, the Sports Ministry had ordered the NADA to conduct tests on cricketers and had sought the BCCI cooperation to enforce the World Anti Doping Code on Indian cricketers.

However, the BCCI refused compliance, citing that it is not subjected to the jurisdiction of the NADA. 

-ANI