Justice R. M. Lodha: This report concerns 1.28 billion people

                                        
According to information available to Sportstar, the Justice Lodha Committee will, among other things, empower players so that they are no longer supplicant to cricket administrators. The head of the committee, Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha, a former Chief Justice of India, spoke to us on Sunday evening, a day before he makes his findings public.

Excerpts from an interview:

Question: Tomorrow is D-Day for Indian cricket…

Answer: (Laughs) I am glad that the committee has completed the monumental task assigned to it by the highest court of the country. This was an important assignment. But I would like to thank all those who gave us insightful information to complete this report.

You have served as the Chief Justice of India. How big was this responsibility?

This is a task, which concerns 1.28 billion people. It concerns the passion of every cricket fan. It’s very, very important. I would call it a landmark task. It remains to be seen how people view it (laughs).

Indian cricket was in need of reform. Are you glad you have played a part in it?

As judges, we deal with reforms all the time — electoral reforms, legal reforms and the like. These are cricket reforms (laughs). This was something we weren’t used to. The subject was totally different. And the exercise was huge and monumental. But I hope we have addressed the concerns of 1.28 billion people. That’s what kept us going.

There is a feeling that the BCCI has been unfairly targeted. Other Indian sports bodies are not even run efficiently…

(Interrupts) The court has given us this task. It’s not like we approached the court and asked for the job (laughs).

But will you do Indian sport a favour and conduct a similar review into the way Olympic disciplines are run in this country?

(Laughs) That’s a matter of conjecture. How can I comment on that?

But what if the Supreme Court requests you to do so?

I can’t say anything. Let’s see.