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Following the verdict of the R M Lodha Committee suspending Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two years, the Indian Premier League (IPL)’s governing council met in Mumbai on Sunday to deliberate on the way forward for the Pepsi IPL.
In a media advisory released after the meeting, Anuraj Thakur, secretary, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said, “BCCI respects the verdict of the Lodha Commission and will abide by their decisions, in toto. The members recognised that there is an urgent need to understand the impact of this decision and the wider ramifications for BCCI in detail, so as to uphold the paramountcy of the game in our country.”
The governing council authorised IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla to constitute a working group, which will study this verdict, in consultation with key advisors of the BCCI and explore all the possible measures to be adopted, in a way that protects the interests of all the stakeholders involved.
The working group thus appointed will do so in six weeks and report its recommendations to the IPL governing council. The council will, then, deliberate and share its views with the working committee of the BCCI for further action.
On July 14, a three-member panel set up by the Supreme Court earlier this year suspended Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings which were implicated in the 2013 betting and matching fixing case for two years.
Lodha also said both Gurunath Meiyappan (former team official of the Chennai Super Kings) and Raj Kundra (former co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals) were barred from having any interests in cricket henceforth.
