Chennai: The BCCI, is set to conduct its annual general body meeting on December 17, is throwing its weight behind Sundar Raman, the COO of IPL and plenipotentiary of the board.
Seen as BCCI’s enforcer who made all other cricketing nations agree to a revolutionary revenue-sharing model with a lion’s share going to India, Raman is considered the most powerful cricket admin personality after ICC chairman N. Srinivasan.
Named by the Mudgal panel probe report as a person who “knew a contact of a bookie and had contacted him eight times in one season,” Raman was given the opportunity to defend himself at the working committee held in Chennai on Tuesday.
The committee decided to back him saying, “Sundar Raman gave his explanation relating to his role with reference to conclusion relating to him in the report of Mudgal committee.”
“The members heard his explanation and decided that the board should support Mr Sundar Raman to represent himself before the Supreme Court.”
A senior BCCI member and former president and ICC chief who did not attend the working committee meeting had informally sought action against Raman on the same lines as that taken against Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra, IPL franchise owners who were banned from the game for activities detrimental to the game's image.
The members of the pro-Srinivasan group, who met informally on Monday night and Tuesday morning and strategised on various issues facing the BCCI in the Supreme Court, decided to put their weight behind the IPL official who is also the BCCI representative on the ICC’s Integrity Working Party.
The BCCI logic is what has come out now is the probe panel’s conclusions and not any top court verdict on the same and that any of the probe conclusions can be challenged in court. The BCCI will abide only by court orders, a source revealed.
The mood in the BCCI now is such it is planning to take penal action against “unscrupulous elements” who are aiming at destabilising the working of the BCCI and who have dragged the board to the top court.
The names of three former BCCI presidents is being mentioned in this regard. The much- anticipated final word of the court is expected to be pronounced on November 24, the date of the next hearing of the case involving the IPL betting, sport and match-fixing scandals.
