Why the SC should not allow Shastri to investigate the IPL

Can an employee fairly and judiciously investigate his boss for alleged acts of corruption? Can he do so despite being on public record praising and defending his boss against the very same allegations of corruption he could be tasked with investigating?

These are the questions Ravi Shastri faces after the BCCI nominated him to its proposed three-member committee to investigate allegations of corruption in the IPL and against N Srinivasan, the suspended BCCI president.

Shastri is both a paid commentator for the IPL and a paid member of the IPL governing council. To a large extent, he owes his livelihood to the BCCI. His loyalty, therefore, lies with the board, something he made abundantly clear in his Dilip Sardesai lecture last year,

“The BCCI has been a punching bag,” he said in the wake of the IPL spot-fixing scandal last year that resulted in three players being arrested. “I tell people that you got to see what BCCI has done for cricket. Unlike some of the other associations that are at loggerheads, here is one body that has consistently produced results.”

What’s more, Shastri believes the board is above criticism from former players, such as himself. “No matter how much you want to criticise, you have to remember, if they had not given you that first stepping stone, you would not have become the cricketer you went on to be.”

Can someone who believes criticism is a step too far possibly find fault with the board in an investigation?

Then there is Shastri’s vocal defense of Srinivasan himself. While the Supreme Court and the Bombay High Court have come down harshly on the embattled board president. Shastri called him a “terrific administrator”. It apparently does not matter that there have been two different corruption scandals in the IPL in the first two years of Srinivasan’s tenure, neither of which were fully investigated by the BCCI. Or that India hasn’t won an away Test since Srinivasan became president, losing 10 of their last 12 Tests in England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

What does matter to Shastri is Srinivasan is a “genuine cricket lover”, as if love of the game absolves one of all other sins.

During the same Dilip Sardesai lecture, Shastri also said he would not have resigned had he been in Srinivasan’s position. “If I were the BCCI president or the captain of a team or the head of my political party, I would never have resigned. That’s not the school I was brought up in. I would take responsibility and set the house in order.”

To recap: One of the three men the BCCI want to investigate the IPL and Srinivasan is paid by the board for his IPL working, thinks the BCCI is great, Srinivasan is terrific and any criticism of the board is a no-no.

Clearly, Shastri should not be part of any committee that investigates the IPL and Srinivasan. There are just too many conflicts of interest for him to be completely impartial.

According to ESPNcricinfo, the BCCI included Shastri in its proposed three-member committee on the grounds that in its original order in the case, the Bombay High Court said under IPL rules, a probe committee formed by the BCCI needs to include one member from the IPL Code of Behaviour committee. In this case, Shastri is that member.

But this is a mere fig leaf. The Supreme Court still has to approve the committee. Had the board wanted to avoid any appearance of impropriety, it could have requested the court to allow it to appoint three independent members, rather than shoe-horning a loyalist in Shastri on to the committee.

The Supreme Court will consider the BCCI’s proposal tomorrow. Twitter has already passed its verdict on Shastri’s inclusion, with Supreme Court lawyer Rahul Mehra calling it a “cruel joke on Indians & cricket lovers”.

While the court has already made it clear it is troubled by the governance of the game in the country, it wanted to preserve the BCCI’s autonomy and therefore allowed it to recommend its own probe committee. Shastri’s inclusion, however, should give the court further pause. If they want a genuine investigation into the IPL and Srinivasan, it must reject Shastri’s presence. And then order its own independent investigation.