Johri is the first-ever CEO of BCCI ©Getty
On October 21, 2016, the Supreme Court of India clipped the financial wings of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Their order put a stop to disbursal of any funds whatsoever, unless the Board and its state associations complied with the Lodha Committee's recommendations in full.
Additionally, the Court also ordered the appointment of an independent auditor to set a threshold limit for the Board's expenses as well as monitor any new contracts it might enter into. The former point was noteworthy in the immediate context as the state associations - particularly the ones hosting India's five-Test series against England - didn't have any funding to work with, and publicly expressed their inability to host the said matches.
Sufficient time elapsed in the to-and-fro game between the BCCI and Lodha Committee, even as then Board president Anurag Thakur filed an affidavit on November 5, citing his inability to coerce the state associations into fully complying with the Court order.
On November 8 then, even as Virat Kohli and Alastair Cook addressed the pre-series press conferences at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot, the fate of the first Test - scheduled to start in less than 24 hours - was unclear.
Only a day prior, in a last-ditch effort, the BCCI - coaxed by CEO Rahul Johri - had filed an interim appeal in the Supreme Court for release of funds. Even as the two teams held net sessions in Rajkot's dry heat, the Board's desperate plea was being heard in New Delhi with time nearly running out.
Thankfully for Indian cricket, the Court