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In what appears to be a major turning point in Indian cricket, a Supreme Court panel led by Justice R M Lodha today suspended two of the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) marquee franchises — Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals — for two years on charges of corruption.
More worryingly, the core of India’s one-day international side now stares at an uncertain IPL future. Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, stand-in-skipper for the Zimbabwe tour, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin are all without IPL contracts. That explains probably why Rahane could manage only a lacklustre 15-ball 22 against Zimbabwe in Harare today.
The two teams’ co-owners, Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra, have been suspended from cricket activities for life. For many, this is hopefully the first phase of a cleanup act that the cricket world has been arduously waiting for. But the repercussions of this verdict may be severe, with its reverberations likely to ring for a long time to come.
The SC panel stated that players from the two suspended teams are eligible to play for any other team, which means that the league will have to call for a fresh auction before the 2016 season gets under way. The BCCI now has the option to invite bids for two new franchises or go ahead with a six-team league — a move that will rob the tournament of the competitiveness that it prides itself so much on.
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If the decision to field two new teams is indeed taken, then there is a likelihood that we may see the Kochi Tuskers Kerala make a comeback. The southern outfit appeared in just one season (2011) before it was terminated by the BCCI for a breach in contract. The BCCI, earlier this month, was asked to pay the Tuskers Rs 550 crore after it lost that battle in court. But the Tuskers have been insisting that more than the compensation, it is a return to the league that they will prefer. The BCCI might have to seriously consider that possibility now.
The hassles of rejigging the whole franchise system aside, the financial implications of this verdict will dent the fortunes of the BCCI massively. The departure of the Super Kings — among the league’s most popular and successful teams — will force major sponsors to take the exit route. Viewership numbers are also likely to dwindle. More important, the league will have to prove its credibility once again.
The judgement will also have a major bearing on the standing of former BCCI boss and incumbent International Cricket Council (ICC) chief N Srinivasan. Although not implicated directly, Chennai Super Kings is owned by Srinivasan and Meiyappan is his son-in-law. Moreover, this gives the Jagmohan Dalmiya camp a glorious opportunity to slowly push Srinivasan into irrelevance. For long, speculation has been rife that Dalmiya, the current BCCI president, and secretary Anurag Thakur have been pushing for Srinivasan’s ouster as India’s representative at the ICC. This decision also comes as boost for Sharad Pawar, who has criticised Pawar fervently in the past. The equations in the the power corridors of the BCCI are destined to change once again. This time, we hope, they are for good.
