IPL match-fixing case: Clean up game, Supreme Court tells N Srinivasan
New Delhi/Chennai: Spelling more trouble for cricket board president N Srinivasan, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked him to step down from his post in order to facilitate a fair probe into the IPL spot-fixing scandal in which his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan has been indicted by an Supreme Court-appointed inquiry panel.
Severely criticising Mr Srinivasan, the Supreme Court said cricket cannot be cleaned up in the country unless he steps down as head of the national cricket board as the allegations in the probe report are “very, very serious”.
A bench headed by Justice A.K. Patnaik said: “In our opinion, Srinivasan has to step down if a proper probe is to be done in the case. It is nauseating that he is still sticking to the chair. He has to go if cricket has to be cleaned.”
The bench said if Mr Srinivasan fails to step down, it will have to pass orders in this regard. The matter will now be taken up on Thursday. The BCCI’s members are likely to be huddled in a meeting in Chennai on Wednesday to consider the implications of the stinging observations by the Supreme Court rapping its president N. Srinivasan on the knuckles.
Besides a “no comment” line, there was no word from the BCCI president. The writing is on the wall and he will have to present his resignation as BCCI president to the court as there seems to be little scope for defiance here since the court has threatened to pass an order if Mr Srinivasan does not relent.
His legal team is busy assessing the defence left, that may include an appeal if and when an order is passed.
Voices are, meanwhile, rising in the BCCI about the future course of action on finding a replacement rather than a dummy interim president. BCCI vice-president Shivlal Yadav, who is on a temple visit to Maharashtra, spoke to Mr Srinivasan on Tuesday and he has been asked to stand by, perhaps to be named interim president. He will probably play the role that Jagmohan Dalmiya did earlier in protecting Mr Srinivasan’s interests.
The Supreme Court bench made stinging observations after perusing the contents of a report that runs into over 100 pages, and was filed in a sealed cover by a three-member committee headed by former Punjab and Haryana high court chief justice Justice Mukul Mudgal.
The court said the contents, which also raised suspicion about the role of six India-capped players in the IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal, cannot be revealed in open court and asked the BCCI’s counsel to go through certain paragraphs in it.
“See and go through the report to get to know the seriousness of the allegations, but as a counsel not as a paid advocate of Srinivasan or the BCCI,” the bench told C.A. Aryama Sundaram. During the hearing, the BCCI pleaded before the court not to reveal the contents and names of players mentioned in the report
