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After being dubbed the government's go to man and helping revive Satyam and restore the confidence in the Indian IT industry Deepak Parekh, chairman, Housing Development Finance Corporation will now be employing his skills as a troubleshooter as special advisor to interim Board of Control for Cricketin India-Indian Premier League (BCCI-IPL) president Sunil Gavaskar.
Parekh's exact role as an advisor however is yet to be known. When approached with the question, he remained non-committal on the definition of the role, but clarifiedhe doesn't "have bigger role to cleanse the game or BCCI. Its limited role."
"Sunil Gavaskar approached me yesterday and asked me to become an advisor. My role is limited for six weeks to ensure smooth functioning of IPL without controversies," he said.
The appointment comes at a time whenthe cash rich twenty-twenty tournament is mired in controversies of betting and corruption. Late last month, the Supreme Court passed an interim order directing BCCI chief N Srinivasan to step down to allowfree and fair investigation into allegations against GurunathMeiytapan in the 2013 IPL betting and match fixing scandal. Meiyyapan, who hold the post of team prinicpal in MS Dhoni led franchise Chennai Super Kings, is the son-in-law of Srinivasan.Srinivasan on the other hand, is also the MD of India Cements, thecompany that owns the Chennai based IPL franchise.
In a PIL filed last year, it wasalleged that due to the above connections, the investigation could beplagued with conflict of interest on the part of Srinivasan. The PIL also challenged the findings of the probe committee set up by the BCCI to look into the matter, that cleared Meiyyapan and Rajasthan Royals co-owners Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra.
The case was ultimately taken up in theSupreme Court and as part of the proceedings, the apex court passedan interim order which allowed the two franchises under the scanner- CSK and RR, should be allowed to play for this season. It alsoappointed former cricketer Gavaskar as the interim president of the BCCI, exclusively to look after IPL related affairs.
There is however still no clarity onwhether IPL COO Sundar Raman will continue in his current post.Gavaskar has been repeatedly urged by Aditya Verma, secretary,Cricket Association of Bihar, who filed the PIL against the BCCI and Srinivasan, to remove Raman from the post if the tournament has to be run credibly.
