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The woes of N Srinivasan, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), over a betting scandal in the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) increased on Tuesday, with the Supreme Court asking him to step down. If he did not do so, the apex court would be forced to pass an order on this, it said, directing BCCI to file its response by Thursday.
Repeated calls and messages to BCCI officials, including Srinivasan and Secretary Sanjay Patel, remained unanswered.
According to a report of the Mudgal committee, released last month, Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was found guilty of involvement in the illegal betting case. A two member Bench of the Supreme Court opined that Srinivasan should step down to ensure the probe was not hampered.
Last year, three players from the Rajasthan Royals IPL franchise, including capped Team India player S Sreesanth, were alleged to be involved in a match-fixing scandal during the T20 cricket tournament. Meiyappan, also a senior management executive of India Cements, the company that owns the Chennai Super Kings franchise, was named after further investigations. Rajasthan Royals co-owners Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty were also named for illegal betting.
The matter was investigated by a two-judge committee, which cleared the names of those implicated. However, the Supreme Court observed that the probe committee's report was unlawful and instituted a three-member committee under judge Mukul Mudgal to investigate the matter further.
The Mudgal committee filed its report before the Supreme Court on February 10 this year. The report found that the charges against Meiyappan were valid and warranted further investigations, as did those against Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty.
Earlier, Srinivasan had stepped 'aside' following pressure from BCCI members and former chief Jagmohan Dalmiya was appointed as interim president. However, in September, Srinivasan was re-elected the president of the board.
Srinivasan is set to take over as chairman of the board of the International Cricket Council in July.
