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Narayanaswamy Srinivasan, 68, was re-elected as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a third term at it’s 84th annual general meeting (AGM) held here Sunday. He won hands down, as he was the lone candidate for president.
“N Srinivasan was unanimously elected as president of the BCCI for 2013-14. The other office bearers who were elected on Sunday include Sanjay Patel (honorary secretary), Anurag Thakur (joint secretary), Anirudh Chaudhry (hon treasurer), S P Bansal (vice-president - north zone): Rajeev Shukla (vice-president - central zone) Shivlal Yadav (vice-president - south zone), Ravi Savant (vice-president - west zone) and Chitrak Mitra (vice-president - east zone),” BCCI said in a statement.
Speaking to reporters, Congress leader and Union Minister Rajeev Shukla, who took over from Sudhir Dabir as vice-president for BCCI’s central zone, said: “He (Srinivasan) said he will not assume charge immediately because of a Supreme Court directive, while the rest of the office-bearers will assume charge immediately.”
Earlier, the Supreme Court had allowed the AGM to take place but it restrained Srinivasan from taking charge if elected.
The direction was in response to a petition by the Secretary of the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), who sought to restrain Srinivasan from getting re-elected. The apex court is expected to give its final verdict on Monday.
CAB, which is not recognised by the BCCI, had asked the court not to allow Srinivasan to contest for the president’s post on the ground that his son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, who was the team principal of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings, was charge-sheeted for betting in the sixth edition of the IPL Twenty20 tournament.
Chennai Super Kings is owned by India Cements, where Srinivasan is the vice-chairman. Shukla said Sunday’s meeting would not be a contempt of court since the apex court had clearly said that BCCI can hold the AGM and elect people.
“As per the BCCI's rule, only an elected president can conduct the AGM and he (Srinivasan) is the elected president. We will wait for Supreme Court's direction tomorrow (Monday).” Srinivasan had taken charge as the 30th president of BCCI in September 2011. It may be noted that each region of the south, east, west and north will be holding the president’s chair for three years. As part of a rotational system, the southern region gets to choose the president this time round.
Srinivasan had refused to step down after the IPL scandal involving his son-in-law broke out. He had repeatedly said in the past that he did not do anything wrong and let the law decide about his son-in-law’s alleged involvement in the IPL fixing.
It may be noted on June 2, after mounting pressure from the media and other BCCI members, Srinivasan had decided to step aside, while Jagmohan Dalmiya of the Cricket Association of Bengal took charge to take care of day-to-day affair of BCCI.
However, despite stepping aside, Srinivasan remained the signing authority.
