The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to incur the expenses for all the matches to be played in the India-England series till December 3.

Also ordering BCCI to bear the entire expense of ₹58.66 lakh for the maiden Rajkot match in the series scheduled for November 9, a Bench led by the Chief Justice of India TS Thakur said the payments should be made directly to the parties BCCI has contracted with for the series.

In short, the Bench made it clear that BCCI should not pay a farthing to member cricket associations of States where the series is going to be held, including the Rajkot/Saurashtra cricket association, all whom have not complied with the court’s October 21 order to file undertakings to implement the Lodha panel recommendations in letter and spirit.

The accounts of the expenses so incurred by the BCCI would be handed over to the Lodha Committee, which will audit it. The Committee has be given permission to appoint an auditor immediately.

Perusing the latest report filed by the Lodha Committee, the Bench allowed the Committee to appoint administrative and clerical staff and also experts in various fields to help it to vet a large number of contracts regarding domestic, IPL and international cricket seasons in 2017.

The BCCI had moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday saying there are no funds for the India-England test series scheduled to start on November 9 at Rajkot. Justice Lodha panel secretary, advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, said neither BCCI nor its member-State associations have so far given any compliance reports or undertakings that they will comply with the Lodha recommendations as per the Supreme Court verdict on October 21.

However the apex court had given BCCI an “additional opportunity” to prove its bona fide and engineer an all-out effort to induce its member State associations to adopt the Justice Lodha Committee reforms for fairness and transparency in cricket administration.

The BCCI has to accomplish this task by December 3. Its president, Anurag Thakur, and secretary, Ajay Shirke, has to file a compliance report in the Supreme Court. The duo have to also appear before the Lodha Committee to explain the manner of compliance. The Supreme Court has fixed the next date of hearing on December 5.

It had ordered that all disbursements of BCCI funds to member State associations should “forthwith cease and desist” till the latter see reason and resolve to fully comply with the Lodha reforms in letter and spirit.

“Any transfer of funds shall take place to the State associations only after compliance is effected,” the Supreme Court had ordered.

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