Chennai: The BCCI can no longer operate like a country on its own as the Supreme Court has made it clear that the cricket board performs public functions and therefore can be challenged in a court
The cricket world has been delivered a bolt from the blue. Its head, Mr N Srinivasan, has been declared ineligible to seek election as President of the cash rich and all powerful BCCI. If he does not make himself eligible within six weeks to contest the election, the world governing body may rise in revolt and ask him to surrender the chairmanship of ICC.
Read: Srini can't contest BCCI polls; Meiyappan-Kundra involved in betting, rules SC
The troubles, according to everyone in the game, or at least those willing to talk on the principles behind the issue rather than receive BCCI paychecks and doles and remain shrewdly silent like some giant cricketers of the past, have been brought upon the game by Mr Srinivasan himself who manipulated the IPL rules to enable his company India Cements to own a franchise in the valuable league.
In a sweeping judgement that makes deep comments on the game and the sporting frauds like match-fixing and betting that have cast a cloud over the working of the BCCI, the 2-member Bench of the Supreme Court said, “We make it clear that the disqualification for contesting elections applicable to those who are holding any commercial interest in BCCI events shall hold good and continue till such time the person concerned holds such commercial interest or till the Committee considers and awards suitable punishment to those liable for the same; whichever is later.”
Read: Supreme Court tells N Srinivasan to choose between BCCI or CSK
“Mr Srinivasan cannot sell CSK to his cook or driver in a benami transaction and claim that he has nothing to do with the team anymore. The 3-member SC committee will be watching every move,” said a BCCI member, preferring anonymity. In effect, the future of CSK is very much in the balance and Mr Srinivasan would have to ponder very hard if he decides he has to stick to his chair at any cost.
The court calls for a zero tolerance approach to any wrongdoing. BCCI members beholden to the former president for various lucrative positions held in the board have been mouthing the same cautious platitudes like “We are awaiting a copy of the judgement.”
Meanwhile, the cricket strongman, a religious person with a deep faith in astrology and vaastu, was heading for the Sringeri mutt in Karnataka on Thursday even as his vassals were playing guessing games on his next moves. All of them are betting that his counter move would get around the stay on his contesting the election.
Critics are pointing to why Mr Srinivasan needs the BCCI to support all the legal cases since most or all of them have rained upon the board because of the conflict of interest situations he engendered by buying an IPL franchise in the first place.
Read: ‘Srini a symptom of a rotten system,’ says Surender Khanna
Unofficial estimates, made principally by his legal opponent Aditya Verma of the Cricket Association of Bihar, say that the current rounds of litigation has cost BCCI upwards of Rs 320 crores in legal fees, money that could have been spent usefully on promotion of the game.
Mr Srinivasan still commands a majority in the BCCI and he can either make himself eligible for election or get a dummy elected through the East Zone nomination route. That would suit his loyalists until an alternative bobs up.
Meanwhile, Mr Sriniavasan has been relying on a powerful Cabinet minister and former cricket official to guide him through the latest crisis. But with the very future of the IPL and its impending Season 8 at stake, there is a lot up for grabs.
And a new angle to all this is every move will be monitored by the Supreme Court through its three-member committee comprising former judges and headed by former CJI Lodha.
Moves are already afoot among BCCI members trying to rope in Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya who with two of six votes in East Zone, plays a dominant role. A trio of former presidents is trying to wean away members to lessen the influence of Mr Srinivasan. Truth to tell, the immediate former president has put so many lollies in the way of cricketers and officials that to gather opposition to him would be a Herculean task. But he has the Supreme Court breathing down his neck, which again is his own doing.
