NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court appointed on Monday a four-member panel of administrators, headed by former comptroller and auditor general Vinod Rai , to run the affairs of BCCI after its president and other top office bearers were barred following sweeping changes ordered by the court.

In keeping with norms set by the court-appointed Lodha panel, SC named historian Ramachandra Guha , Infrastructure and Development Finance Company CEO Vikram Limaye and former India women's captain Diana Edulji as other panel members. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra, A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said the panel will supervise BCCI's management, with the board CEO reporting to it. SC selected the panel from names suggested by senior advocates Gopal Subramaniam and Anil Divan, who are assisting the court, and state associations. The bench turned down the Centre's plea that secretary of the sports ministry be also nominated as an admin istrator, citing its earlier verdict that had barred ministers and bureaucrats from holding any post in BCCI.

After nearly three years of legal proceedings during which the apex court urged BCCI and state cricket associations to reform cricket administration , the court finally entrusted the task of injecting transparency and accountability in to the panel led by Rai, who is currently chairman of the banks board bureau.

The court began hearing the case on cricket reforms in March 2014 when allegations of betting and spotfixing in IPL 2013 came to light, but soon expanded the ambit of the hearing and appointed Justice RM Lodha as head of a panel to recommend measures to overhaul cricket administration in the country .

The apex court had on July 18 last year ordered a comprehensive revamp of BCCI, based on recommendations of the Justice Lodha committee which barred ministers and bureaucrats from the board, set an age limit of 70 years for office-bearers and sought to implement a `one-state-one-vote' principle.

The cricket body resisted implementation of several reforms leading to the court freezing its accounts and finally replacing its office-bearers to ensure compliance of its order. It turned down the plea of the Centre, BCCI and other state associations which contended that the court should first decide their petition for recall of the July order.

Making it clear that the court order on cricket reforms must be complied with, the bench asked the committee to file a status report in four weeks.

The court also appointed Amitabh Chaudhary, Anirudh Chaudhary (as suggested by BCCI) and Vikram Limaye to represent the board in the ICC executive meeting to be held in February first week. The court, however, made it clear that accepting BCCI's names did not mean that it had approved their continuance in the management of the board's affairs and their task was only limited to represent it at the ICC meeting.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the bench that the Centre's application for recall of the July order should be decided by the court before it passed an order on appointment of administrators. The state associations also supported his contention but the court remained firm and passed the direction.

“We are ensuring implementation of our order. We will go step by step. Let the panel first find out how many of the recommendations have been complied with and what are the recommendations which have not been implemented and why it has not been implemented,“ the bench said.

KNOW BOARD'S INTERIM TEAM

VINOD RAI, Chairman

The Harvard-educated, 68-year-old former Comptroller and Audior General (CAG) of India drew appreciation for his hard-hitting reports on a wide range of issues, from preparation for the Commonwealth Games to spectrum allocation for 2G. Rai, who got his Masters degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, is a 1972-batch retired IAS officer. He held several senior positions in the finance department of his parent cadre state Kerala as well as the Centre. Rai is the first chairman of Bank Boards Bureau and was also the chairman of the UN Panel of External Auditors.

RAMACHANDRA GUHA

The 58-year-old Guha is a renowned historian, columnist and cricket writer. Guha, who has authored a number of books -including many on cricket -was the Philippe Roman Professor of History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics. He has also taught at Yale and Stanford, held the Arne Naess Chair at the University of Oslo and been the Indo-American community visiting professor at the University of California in Berkeley.

VIKRAM LIMAYE

An MBA from the US who worked eight years in Wall Street, Limaye is the managing director and CEO of Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC). He has contributed to various committees of government and industry associations related to infrastructure, economic policy, markets, trade, minority affairs etc. He has been a speaker at various domestic and international conferences and been part of international government delegations for infrastructure and foreign direct investments in India.

DIANA EDULJI

Former captain of the Indian women's cricket team, Diana played 20 Tests and 34 ODIs for India. Considered the best slow left-arm orthodox player during her playing days, Diana bagged 63 Test wickets and 46 ODI wickets. A vocal advocate of women's cricket rights, Diana once quipped, during a tour of England in 1986, that the Marylebone Cricket Club should change its name to MCP (male chauvinist pig) after she was denied entry to the Lord's pavilion.

