BCCI president and secretary removed from posts by India’s Supreme Court

NEW DELHI // India’s top court ordered the removal of two cricket administrators for failing to reform the country’s cricket body as suggested by a court-appointed committee.

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the firing of Anurag Thakur, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and Ajay Shirke, its secretary.

The court accepted in July most of the recommendations of a three-member panel it had set up to look into the operations of the world’s richest cricket board.

The BCCI rejected some of the recommendations made by the panel headed by former chief justice RM Lodha, which also included age and tenure restrictions for top officials, as well as banning them from serving successive terms.

“One should understand that once the order of the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, has come it has to be obeyed by all ... nobody can escape it,” Mr Lodha said after the verdict.

“Being at the helm of affairs, if they were not able to implement the Supreme Court order, these consequences were bound to follow and that’s what has happened.

“Administrators come and administrators go but ultimately it’s for the benefit of the game and the game will flourish, I’m very sure.”

There was no immediate reaction from Mr Thakur, though Mr Shirke said he was yet to read the order but was ready to step down.

“If the highest court of the land wants me to leave, I’d leave happily, I have no issues,” he told CNN News18 channel from London.

“We have to see that the BCCI, in its new form, continues to do well, cricket flourishes and India is able to maintain its position in global cricket.”

* Agencies

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Emirates flies from Dubai to Funchal via Lisbon, with a connecting flight with Air Portugal. Economy class returns cost from Dh3,845 return including taxes.

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