Crucial BCCI meet begins, Srinivasan likely to step aside

The Indian cricket board's working committee meeting - being held to decide the fate of its president N. Srinivasan  - has begun in Chennai.

The meeting was called after the Board of Control for Cricket in India's secretary Sanjay Jagdale and treasurer Ajay Shirke quit Friday on moral grounds following the betting scandal in IPL. The IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla also resigned on Saturday.

Srinivasan, whose son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan has been arrested for betting in IPL, has come under pressure to quit.

As the BCCI geared up for its Emergent Working Committee meeting, the embattled Board president had a word with some of the members in a last-ditch effort to resign on his own terms.

BCCI joint-secretary Anurag Thakur, however, said that there was nothing wrong in Srinivasan having separate meetings with the WC members.

"It's a natural process. As a Board president he is entitled to meet the state unit heads and other Working Committee members. I have no objections in that," Thakur told reporters before on arrival for the meeting.

Asked he was still stuck to his view that Srinivasan should resign from his post, Thakur said, "In the interest of cricket and to have a fair and transparent probe, it will be better if Srinivasan does that."

"No individual is bigger and more important than an organisation. As a former cricketer, I want to appeal that everybody should perform their duties for the betterment of the game," said Thakur who was one of three BCCI office bearers who have applied strong pressure on Srinivasan to call the meeting.