Supreme Court allows Srinivasan to take charge of BCCI; orders IPL probe

The Supreme Court has allowed N Srinivasan to take charge as president of the BCCI but has constituted a three-member panel to investigate the allegations of spot-fixing and betting in the IPL.

The panel will be headed by former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana HC Mukul Mudgal. The other two members are additional Solicitor General Nageshwara Rao and Nilesh Dutta, the vice-president of the Assam Cricket Board. The panel has been given four months to prepare a report, which will be submitted to the Court and not the BCCI. The Court had suggested the three names to both parties on Monday.

According to CNN-IBN, the court has given the panel the authority to decide whether or not any action should be taken against the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, including the dissolution of the franchises. The court has also stated that the Srinivasan should have nothing to do with the IPL until the probe is completed.

The board said it was pleased that Srinivasan has been allowed to discharge his functions as president, given that it has been eight days since he was re-elected. It is very important for the functioning of the board that he takes charge as early as possible,” Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer, said.

Shetty also told CNN-IBN that Srinivasan told the board members he would stay away from matters related to the IPL until the probe was completed.

The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) secretary Aditya Verma that wanted Srinivasan barred from the BCCI until the investigation into the IPL was completed. CAB had the challenged the authority and legality of the BCCI appointed probe into the IPL, which was declared null and void by the Bombay High Court. The board then appealed that order to the Supreme Court, to which Verma and CAB added the petition to keep Srinivasan away from the board.

In the course of the hearing, the court observed that “so many things are coming about IPL and something seems wrong with the apex cricketing body… why it has lost its credibility”, Justice Patnaik asked BCCI counsel CA Sundaram.

Srinivasan was elected unopposed as President on 30 September. He was the lone Presidential candidate put forward by the South Zone, whose turn it was to propose and second a candidate. The AGM asserted Srinivasan’s supremacy in India’s richest sporting body with not even a single voice of dissent being heard during the proceedings of the day.