Chennai: Among those whose names came up at Sunday’s emergency Working Committee meeting held in Mumbai, but who were not in the final list of three on the panel to probe into the IPL spot and match-fixing and betting scandals, is Shivlal Yadav, now President of BCCI matters other than IPL. The names of former Speaker of Parliament, Somnath Chatterjee and a Kolkata-based judge Chakraborty also figured in the discussion, it is learnt.
It is also learnt that the issue of N. Srinivasan representing the BCCI at ICC meetings was not raised at all at Sunday’s meet, pointing to Srinivasan’s hold in the 24-member Working Committee. Only Punjab and Vidarbha Cricket Associations come across as anti-Srinivasan. Others on the BCCI’s working committee include Anurag Thakur (BCCI joint secretary, Himachal), Anirudh Chaudhry (treasurer), S. P. Bansal, Chitrak Mitra, Ravi Savant, Rajeev Shukla (vice-presidents), representatives of the Delhi, Tamil Nadu,
Bengal, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Goa, Karnataka, Gujarat and Hyderabad cricket associations besides officials of the National Cricket Club (Kolkata), Cricket Club of India and Railway Sports Promotion Board.
Tamil Nadu Cricket Association secretary Kasi Viswanathan, a close aide of sidelined BCCI president Srinivasan, attended the meeting. PS Raman, a TNCA vice president, was also present at the BCCI office. Saurashtra Cricket Association secretary Niranjan Shah, Kerala Cricket Association president T.C. Mathew and Tripura Cricket Association secretary Arindam Ganguly also attended as special invitees.
However, the members agreed to convene a Special General Body meeting to replace Srinivasan from the Disciplinary Committee, which also has interim president Shivlal Yadav and Rajeev Shukla as its members. “The SGM is likely to take place in the second week of May. We will be discussing names to replace Srinivasan in the committee,” said a state association member.
The disciplinary panel is expected to announce the quantum of punishment to Rajasthan Royals off-spinner Ajit Chandila, key accused in the alleged IPL spot-fixing scandal.
R.K. Raghavan who is a cricket lover and leading thinker on police and judicial matters has a good record as CBI officer, In retirement, he was give the sensitive task of heading the SIT into the Gujarat riots of 2002 and he did not cave in to any political pressures in coming to the conclusion that Narendra Modi was not personally involved in ordering or encouraging the killings.
A blot on his career had come earlier as he was one of the police officers under whose watch Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated near Chennai in 1991. Raghavan was one of three police officers indicted by the Verma Commission for security lapses in election meeting arrangements for the former Prime Minister.
