"But, out of the Rs 119 crore, a chunk was spent on the implementation of Lodha reforms," a BCCI official told mid-day. It is understood that over Rs 40 crore has been paid to the BCCI's legal team, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas while senior counsels' fees run up to R5 lakh for one Supreme Court hearing. These are just the BCCI legal expenses. The state associations have incurred huge expenses towards legal charges," the official said.

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The state units' legal expenses are estimated to be around Rs 10 crore to Rs 35 crore, depending on the litigation and senior counsels hired. State units like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had hired top legal counsels like Tushar Mehta and Kapil Sibal respectively. A lot of the state associations have still filed Interlocutory Applications in the Supreme Court over pending issues regarding their constitution.

BCCI Treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal said one of his objectives is to cut down on the BCCI legal expenses during his three-year tenure. "Obviously, when so much of the organisation's money has gone towards legal expenses, it is a big concern. We will try and see how we can cut down the legal expenses wherever possible," Dhumal told mid-day.

Meanwhile, the old BCCI guard may not hold any position in the new BCCI body, but have ensured relatives got elected. After dwelling on the legal expenses incurred by the Board, a senior BCCI member remarked sarcastically: "If this is what the change was supposed to be, it should have been done long ago. Why did we fight all this while? Ultimately, only the lawyers have benefited from this."

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