Srinivasan’s return: BCCI seniors hunt for compromise

Kolkata, 02 August 2013 (TOI): With N Srinivasan determined to resume charge of BCCI in Friday’s meeting of the board working committee in Delhi, the scene appears set for a clash between the Srinivasan camp and the others.

 

While BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel has said that Srinivasan was, indeed, the BCCI president and will preside over the meeting, two other members, Ajay Shirke and Niranjan Shah, have come out to demand the setting up of another probe panel, something which would imply that Srinivasan hasn’t got a clean chit yet and should not, therefore, be brought back as BCCI chief. This has brought to the fore the fault lines within the board.

While there is no technical or legal hurdle to prevent N Srinivasan from chairing Friday’s meeting in New Delhi, if he does so, the board president is sure to face stinging criticism from at least half-a-dozen members who are determined to speak their mind on the manner in which the probe panel issue was mishandled.

These working committee members, cutting across zonal divide, claimed that the Bombay high court’s observation that the BCCI had failed to follow its own constitution while setting up the probe panel to examine charges of betting and spot-fixing against Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, India Cements (owners of CSK) and JaipurIPL Pt Ltd (owners of Rajasthan Royals) had clearly exposed the cricket board’s leadership and embarrassed even its rank and file.

Threatened by the possibility of an unseemly clash at the meeting, senior board members, including Rajeev Shukla, are looking for a way to defuse the situation. It is learnt that some members have approached Arun Jaitley, a member whose word today carries a lot of weight in the board, to go through the judgement and present a case that prevents a situation where Srinivasan’s re-entry mars the BCCI’s credibility before the people.

The members who feel Srinivasan’s return in this fashion will mar the board’s reputation also want to know why BCCI office-bearers had rushed to table the probe panel’s report at the July 28 meeting in Kolkata when the matter was sub-judice. The role of senior board officials will also be questioned for failing to follow proper procedures while constituting the probe panel.

According to a BCCI source, the Srinivasan camp, which is getting increasingly wary of the growing belligerence in the Working Committee, has been advised by a senior board member to keep their boss away from Friday’s meeting.

These members are hoping to form a pressure group to force the current regime in the BCCI to initiate large-scale reforms in order to rescue a heavily tainted IPL and restore the faith of fans in Indian cricket.

There are two options before the BCCI following the Bombay high court’s ruling: It can move the Supreme Court or it can show some humility and accept it and constitute a new panel to probe the alleged misdeeds in a more transparent manner. Srinivasan can, of course, choose to ignore both and rule the roost and face the consequences.

If he does that he will have another problem on his hands. And that pertains to his bete noire Lalit Modi. Srinivasan is under pressure to complete disciplinary proceedings against Modi at the earliest. But for throwing Modi out of the BCCI, he will need 24 votes.

In the current scenario, it is an unrealistic figure even for Srinivasan, who many members feel, has matched Modi’s arrogance and stubbornness on issues that have hurt Indian cricket. Given this image and the maverick Modi’s ability to win over rivals, Srinivasan may find himself well short of numbers in his bid to pull the plug on the former IPL chairman.

Between now and 12 noon on Friday Srinivasan will have all the pointers to what lies in store. It will be interesting to see whether he keeps pushing BCCI to a point of no return or changes track on his ’second coming’ in order to salvage its credibility.

ON AGENDA

Two-member probe committee’s report - which has given clean chit to Gurunath Meiyappan, Raj Kundra, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals - will be discussed first by IPL’s governing council (GC) to be chaired by Rajeev Shukla.

GC’s observations will be presented to BCCI’s working committee later in the afternoon. The committee will debate whether to reconstitute a fresh probe panel as suggested by Mumbai high court or go into appeal in the Supreme Court.