The upcoming IPL 7 will feature all eight teams, including the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals as the Supreme Court on Friday refrained from barring any team from the tournament. But the court replaced BCCI president N Srinivasan with Sunil Gavaskar to oversee IPL 7 beginning on April 16.
The court also asked Shivlal Yadav, the senior-most vice president, to take charge as BCCI president to conduct non-IPL matches.
The court also directed that till it delivered the verdict, none of the employees of India Cements or its associate companies, except for cricket players or commentators, would perform any of the duties assigned to them by the BCCI. It said interim president Sunil Gavaskar would be free to use the services of anyone he trusts for IPL 7.
The bench, which had on Thursday indicated that it could keep CSK and RR out of IPL 7, decided to not to upset the arrangement.
“We are not going to stop any team from playing in the IPL. We are not going to stop any player from playing as well. We will say IPL will go on as scheduled in the interest of cricket lovers in India,” said the bench of Justices A K Patnaik and I M F Kalifulla.
The court explained that it was allowing the two teams to participate “to ensure that all those who love cricket continue to watch cricket in IPL 2014 and the matches are played by the players in accordance with the IPL Rules”.
The bench had earlier warned Srinivasan, who is the managing director of Indian Cements, to step down as BCCI chief. India Cements owns the CSK franchise. The court passed the orders in view of the indictment of Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan for betting in the IPL, which team owners and officials are not allowed to do.
BCCI counsel C A Sundaram pleaded before the court to go soft on Srinivasan as any adverse order could mar his prospects of taking over as chief the International Cricket Council in June. The court said that it was not going to express “any prima facie opinion” against Srinivasan at this stage.
In its order, the bench also told the BCCI to compensate Gavaskar for losses which he could incur for not being able to undertake prior assignments. Gavaskar is a commentator, analyst and columnist for various entities.
