Srinivasan is cricket's most dangerous man, says Aussie paper

L Sivaramakrishanan’s election to the ICC Cricket Committee continues to be shrouded in controversy. Amidst talk of how the Board of Control for Cricket in India threatened opposition boards to make sure that their man got the job ahead of FICA chief Tim May, comes a report in the Australian newspaper Daily Telegraph .

Among other things, the report calls BCCI president N. Srinivasan ‘cricket’s most dangerous man.’ It goes on to add that Srinivasan, has continued his destruction of the game’s credibility by having Australian Tim May dumped from the International Cricket Council’s influential cricket committee.

“Some captains were threatened with the sack by their boards if they did not vote for Indian commentator and former leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan ahead of May, the former Australian off-spinner. This is despite captains supposedly having independent and confidential votes to elect two player representatives on the committee. The other is former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara,” said the Daily Telegraph.

“Support for May evaporated from nine of the 10 Test captains to just four, Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa, as India threatened to withhold tours and other favours which would cost countries millions in television rights.”

South African skipper Graeme Smith was the only player from the Afro-Asian bloc who resisted the BCCI.

The article goes on to say: “The arrogant and dictatorial Srinivasan is the greatest example of all that is wrong with cricket, particularly on the sub-continent and in Africa.”

In his defence, Sivaramakrishananhad refuted the charges in an interview on CNN-IBN yesterday.

“I am not an employee of Chennai Super Kings,” Sivaramakrishnan said. “I have been an employee of India Cements for the last 16 years and India Cements owns Chennai Super Kings. That has happened in the last six years. I have served India Cements as an employee and played cricket for them and I see no attachment with the Super Kings at all. In fact, I have done nothing at all for the Super Kings.”

Siva, as the former India leg-spinner is known, also said: ““I am sure there are a lot of cricket-related matters that are going to be discussed. And I think I have been around for a long time. I’ve been associated with the game for around 33 years and I have a lot of contribution to make.”

Any which way, this fight seems far from over. For now, the BCCI has won but it may not stay that way.

You can read the full Daily Telegraph story here .