With the Supreme Court suggesting the exclusion of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals from the Indian Premier League’s season seven, a cloud of doubt has been cast over this year’s tournament.
Former BCCI President Shashank Manohar had called for the suspension of IPL on Wednesday and a day later, a clutch of former officials joined the chorus. The seventh edition is scheduled to kick off in UAE on April 16. Former BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah felt it would be difficult to hold IPL 7 if the Supreme Court bars CSK and RR from taking part.
“Now the question is different. There will be only six teams taking part in the IPL and it will be difficult to go ahead with the tournament. The BCCI should call Special General Body meeting and decide whether IPL 7 should be played or not,” said Shah, reacting to the court’s proposals on Thursday.
Clearly disgusted about current happenings off the field, former Test all rounder Bapu Nadkarni backed suggestions by Manohar that IPL should be stopped, at least for a while. “What is happening is not good. The cricketers are bound to be affected by all these. They have to close IPL for some time. Who is going to run it ?” said Nadkarni when asked to respond to the recent developments.
However, another former cricketer and ex-India captain Ajit Wadekar wanted the T20 league to continue. “IPL need not be stopped. It’s fair to suspend CSK and RR, though the players (in the two teams) may suffer,” he said.
Wadekar welcomed the suggestion that Gavaskar should be at the BCCI helm. “That (Gavaskar heading BCCI) would be ideal after he’s nominated as per the constituion. The Supreme Court should also give an order that all state associations be headed by cricketers. Look at what is happening in Mumbai cricket (which has non-cricketers heading it for a long time),” he responded.
Shah, meanwhile, felt the rot in the BCCI has gone too far and the Board will now have to clean up the game before the public loses interest in it. “It’s a bad day for BCCI. Things have gone far beyond and it will only hurt cricket a lot. But I think in the interest of cleaning up the game, may be the Supreme Court’s observations are correct. Whatever the Supreme Court decides BCCI will have to abide by it,” he said.
“Most of the BCCI members are in dark about what is transpiring in the last 7-8 days. So, the BCCI should immediately, without any further delay, call Special General Body meeting and apprise all members about what has happened. And then the persons who are responsible should be taken to task. We are in a very sorry state and BCCI must immediately take bold steps to restore its tarnished image. It is now the duty of all members to get together and find out a way to restore the credibility of the Board,” he said.