NEW DELHI: Former BCCI president Anurag Thakur found an unlikely ally in former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly who tweeted saying Indian cricket needs him back. Thakur had wished Ganguly on his birthday on Sunday (8th July) and in reply, Ganguly wrote this: “dear Anurag thank u so much … need u back in indian cricket …”.
Coming down heavily on the defiant BCCI brass, the Supreme Court had removed Thakur and Ajay Shirke as president and secretary of the BCCI for “obstructing” and “impeding” its directions for overhauling governance in the cricket body and appointed a committee of administrators to oversee BCCI’s functions in January earlier this year.
Ever since, the BCCI’s functioning has been supervised by the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) while Thakur has been embroiled in a legal tangle after SC had initiated contempt proceedings against the BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh for filing a false affidavit over writing to the ICC on the issue of autonomy against implementation of Justice Lodha panel’s reform recommendations.
Thakur has been asked by SC to tender afresh an “unequivocal” and “categorical” apology before it in a contempt case initiated against him. A bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said it was not going to consider the earlier affidavit of apology filed by Thakur and asked him to file a “one-page short affidavit” tendering unconditional apology.