The BCCI for the first time in its history uploaded the constitution on its website only after then BCCI president Shashank Manohar took personal initiative after taking over the reins of the Board in October 2015. He also got the details of all payments, worth Rs 25 lakh or more, displayed on a monthly basis, though this practice has since been discontinued in August last year, after 11 months.
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Manohar, also for the first time ever, got the entire 2015-16 BCCI Annual Report, including the crucial financial statements, uploaded on the website.
“The Hindi translation work has begun at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. So far, hardly any information has been available on the BCCI’s website. Now, more information will be displayed on it, along with the Hindi translation,” a BCCI source told Outlook.
“For example, if someone wanted to become an umpire, he wouldn’t know who to approach and whether the umpires’ academy was based in Nagpur. Now, information of this type too will be available on the website,” he said.
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In its wide-ranging recommendations, the Lodha Committee had recommended, among other steps, that translation of everything on the website to be made available in Hindi too. For this, it recommended that either new websites be created or the existing one be upgraded.
The Lodha Committee had recommended these steps: 1. Link for disabled cricket; 2. Translation of all rules, norms, reports, minutes and circulars [in]to Hindi and uploading both versions; 3. Links to stadia, facilities, ticketing and seat details; 4. Transparency of member associations.
The deadline for implementing these steps was October 15 last year. But the BCCI has been steadfastly defying the Lodha Committee recommendations and trying going around the Supreme Court orders on their implementation by taking legal recourse, seeking clarifications, on several aspects.
Now, after a three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Dipak Mishra, constituted the CoA -- comprising chairman and ex-CAG Vinod Rai, historian Ramchandra Guha, Vikram Limaye, managing director-cum-CEO of Infrastructure Development Finance Company, and former India women's team captain Diana Edulji – on January 30, serious work has started on the reforms as per the Lodha Committee’s recommendations.
Qaiser Mohammad Ali in Bengaluru