It is not a cameo in the slam-bang T20 mode. The Lodha Committee has upset the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) applecart through a lengthy grind. The Supreme Court had formed the three-member panel comprising former chief justice of India RM Lodha and retired Supreme Court judges Ashok Bhan and RV Raveendran to look into the BCCI administration and suggest reforms on January 22 last year. The commission submitted its final report last Monday, recommending sweeping changes. The report has taken the cricket administrators out of their comfort zone.

Little wonder then that ‘judicial overreach’ has become a popular phrase among some of the BCCI members. But don’t blame the good judges. The judiciary reacted because its intervention was sought (by the Cricket Association of Bihar). To be honest, the board has brought this trouble upon itself.

Rewind to 2013, when three Rajasthan Royals players, Sreesanth, Ankit Chavan and Ajit Chandila, were caught for their alleged involvement in spot-fixing during IPL. It was the starting point of the whole controversy. The BCCI set up an inquiry commission headed by its then Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) chief Ravi Sawani. Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila were eventually banned for life, while two other Royals players, Amit Singh and Siddharth Trivedi, were suspended for five years and one year, respectively, for lesser offences.

But when crisis arrived at N Srinivasan’s (then BCCI president) doorstep and his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, a former Chennai Super Kings official, was nabbed for his alleged involvement in betting, the cricket board surprisingly went into a shell. The board was done in by the double standards, as Srinivasan got his priorities wrong. The Lodha Committee report has extensively discussed many issues that are affecting cricket governance. A radical overhaul has been suggested. It would be interesting to see how the BCCI reacts to the recommendations, but this piece intends to focus on something, which perhaps has become a subject of immediate relevance.

The committee has proposed to make (sports) betting legal. In chapter nine titled, Match-Fixing and Betting, the report said the latter could be given a ‘legal framework’. Needless to say, the panel separated it from match/spot fixing.

“There is a fundamental difference between betting and match/spot-fixing. The latter interferes with the integrity of the game and attempts to change the course of the match. It is tampering the game by the cricket players to benefit a few. On the other hand, betting is a general malaise indulged by different sections of society, not only with reference to cricket, but other games also. While the issue of betting can be effectively dealt with by providing a legal framework, match/spot-fixing is neither pardonable nor a matter for regulation. The only way to deal with it is by making it a criminal offence punishable by law. The committee recommends appropriate amendments by the legislature,” said the report.

“As far as Betting alone is concerned, many of the respondents before the Committee were of the view that it would serve both the game and economy if it were legalized as has been done in the United Kingdom. It cannot be overlooked that the worldwide legal sports betting market is worth over 400 billion dollars. However, with the interest of cricket being foremost in our minds, it would always be necessary to protect and invoke transparency from those involved in the game,” it added.

The committee has called for safeguarding the whole process, while mentioning that “betting by Administrators, Players, Match Officials, Team Officials, Owners, etc, shall continue to be an offence under the BCCI and IPL Rules & Regulations”.

In fairness, the BCCI had pre-empted this—the inscrutable malice of illegal betting and its negative consequences on Indian cricket. In 2006, when Sharad Pawar was the cricket board president, a proposal had been put forward before the Union government to make sports betting legal in this country. The government rejected it, saying this couldn’t happen in India. Then, during Shashank Manohar’s first term in office, the request had been made again. Another rebuttal followed.

Some board functionaries seem to have given up. “Who will legalise betting? The BCCI can’t do it. The court can’t do it. This is government’s prerogative. The decision has to be taken in the parliament. The BCCI had put forward the proposal to the Union government, which was rejected. So I think it would be difficult to implement this recommendation,” said Maharashtra Cricket Association president and IPL governing council member Ajay Shirke.

A former BCCI secretary, too, feels the government is unlikely to be influenced. “The taboo that is attached to the whole thing prevents the government to nod in the affirmative. You can’t compare India with Europe or the US. The socio-economic structures are different. Interpretations of moral values are different. So it’s very difficult to convince the government that such a measure is absolutely necessary. And even if people are convinced, who will bell the cat?”

The Lodha report has been submitted before the Supreme Court and it has the power to make the recommendations binding on the BCCI. But legalising betting is beyond its reach. “Court can interpret the law, but whether betting would be made legal or not is solely the parliament’s discretion,” said Cricket Association of Bengal treasurer Biswarup Dey.

Like the retired judges, Shirke, however, believes that time has come to make necessary changes to the law. “Illegal betting is badly affecting cricket and it’s about time sports betting should be made legal. This will bring the whole process under proper surveillance. If government agencies monitor the whole thing, cack-handed activities and crimes will be reduced. Illegal betting has become almost an industry in itself and sweeping it underground clears the field for outlaws.”

Indeed, India can follow England’s example. As per information received, the market for sports betting in the UK is over £2.9 billion (annually) and 33% of the profit directly goes to national exchequer as tax revenue. There’s a betting commission, which is the regulatory authority. This is directly under the sports ministry and works closely with the home ministry, Financial Services Authority (FSA) and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). The commission gathers intelligence about players, officials and everyone related to sports and passes them to the respective sports bodies. The commission maintains data about every individual who places bets through the legal channel. The whole thing is regularised and monitored.

The world market for sports betting is close to 220 bn pounds. In India, the challenge is to overcome the stigma.