BCCI on a sticky wicket over defending Srini, Raman in SC

With the Supreme Court disclosing the names of ICC chairman N Srinivasan and other top cricket administrators from the Mudgal panel report for misdemeanour during IPL 2013, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is faced with the tough task of defending their positions.

The apex court bench, consisting of Justices T S Thakur and F M I Kalifullah, revealed the names of Srinivasan, who vacated the post of BCCI president on court orders, his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, IPL Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sundar Raman and IPL franchisee Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra.

The role of all four and some cricketers were investigated by the Mudgal panel.
Three players were also indicted by the court-appointed committee.

However, as of now, the court is in favour of examining the roles of only the administrators.

On November 24, all four are expected to contest the charges levelled against them. However, the damage done to the sport is irredeemable, lament observers.

The court has also ordered copies of the panel's report to be sent to the four, who have been directed to file their response within four days.

An application was also filed on behalf of Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), which had raised the issue of conflict of interest during the probe into IPL betting and spot-fixing charges. The application sought that Kundra, husband of film actress Shilpa Shetty, Sundar Raman and Meiyappan be impleaded in the on-going battle.

The court had asked the CAB, unrecognised by the BCCI, to file the application as the three were not represented before it.

The copy of the panel report has still not been sent to the parties as the task of blacking out the names of cricketers, wherever it figured in the 35-page report, has  not been completed.

The court wished that the names of the indicted cricketers be held back for now. Meiyappan and Kundra faced police investigation earlier after their names surfaced during the IPL spot-fixing and betting scandals along with those of cricketers and others.

Even though Meiyappan was arrested last May and Kundra reportedly admitted to placing bets during the IPL matches, a BCCI panel, which probed charges of corruption, gave a clean chit to both.

This probably led the Bombay High Court to declare illegal the BCCI's internal probe panel led by Ravi Sawani. The move to challenge the Bombay HC order went against the BCCI since the SC announced its own panel presided over by Justice Mukul Mudgal.

When the probe by the Mudgal panel was on, Srinivasan was asked by the court in March this year to stay away from BCCI affairs. The term of the panel, which submitted its interim report in August, was extended by two months.