New Delhi: The Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committee in their report on Monday recommended the legalisation of betting in Indian cricket.
“We have suggested to the legislature for legalising betting with in-built mechanism and ensuring that players, match officials, administrator, team officials…will not be entitled to indulge in betting,” Justice (Retd.) R.M Lodha, who headed the panel, told the media here.
The Lodha committee also suggested the appointment of three authorities with distinct roles.
“One ombudsman, whose task is to preside over the internal dispute resolution mechanism, dispute between full members, dispute between the BCCI and associate members, breaches by the administrators, players and team officials and other concerns.The ombudsman would be either the former judge of the Supreme Court or the retired Chief Justice of the High Court,” he added.
Justice (Retd.) Lodha proposed that the second authority would be the ethics officer, who will administer the issues relating to conflict of interest, behavior or corruption issues.
He added that the ethics officer would be a former High Court Judge.
“The third authority, which we proposed to be created is an electoral officer, who will oversee the entire election process relating to the office bearers, namely preparation of voters’ list, publications, disputes about eligibility of the office bearers, all these matters relating to election shall be overseen by the electoral officer,” he said.
The other recommendations include a steering committee headed by former home secretary G.K. Pillai with Mohinder Amarnath, Diana Eduljee and Anil Kumble as members.
The Lodha committee was appointed by the apex court last year to make recommendations to the BCCI in order to prevent frauds and conflict of interest in cricket administration. (ANI)