India court raps BCCI for inaction on reforms

NEW DELHI: India’s highest court Wednesday accused top officials from the country’s cricket board of failing to clean up the scandal-ridden body, more than six months after they pledged to enforce reforms.

The Supreme Court ordered that the acting president, secretary and treasurer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appear before a panel of judges on September 19 to explain their inaction.

“You haven’t implemented anything despite our orders. Nothing has been complied (with) and the BCCI says it’s helpless,” the panel of three judges, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, said in its order.

The board, a powerful and wealthy institution in cricket-mad India, was placed under court administration in January after a string of high-profile scandals brought its management into disrepute.

A panel appointed to reform its opaque administration was given an undertaking from the acting president, secretary and treasurer that they would turn things around.

But the court-appointed Committee of Administrators last week said the trio should be removed for failing to implement any of their promised reforms. The board has been accused over its management of the Indian Premier League, a glitzy Twenty20 competition that netted almost $380 million in revenue in 2016. —