Keep Srinivasan away from board or let him face probe: SC to ICC

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Wednesday told the Indian cricket board to either keep N Srinivasan away from the affairs of the board and probe the spot fixing allegations on its own or keep him as the president and let him face an independent probe into these allegations.

The two-judge bench said that Srinivasan's name features among the 13 that are named in the report submitted by the court appointed Justice Mudgal committee. The bench said that a sealed report by the committee had prima facie said that the BCCI chief, who has been temporarily replaced by former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar for IPL 2014 season, "knew about the allegations but did nothing".

"That is the only charge against Srinivasan," Justice AK Patnaik, who's hearing a PIL filed by the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), alongside Justice FMI Kalifulla, said. This places BCCI in an awkward position in which it could insist on having Srinivasan as its head but risk being subjected to a court-monitored probe.

The Board has time till the next hearing on April 22 to react to the court suggestion. The court also made it clear to the board that any such probe would have to be by "persons of integrity".

"It can't be a hush-up," it said.

Srinivasan had filed an affidavit in the SC on Tuesday asking why he was removed as the president of the BCCI. "I'm highly aggrieved by the unfair and unsubstantiated allegations made against me in the course of hearing of the above matter on 27-03-2014. Further, I am personally not aware of the reason why this Honourable Court orally expressed that I should not continue as President of BCCI," he said in his affidavit to the court. He had further request the court to reconsider its interim order that was passed on March 28.

The Mudgal Committee, which had submitted its findings on the match fixing and betting scandal in February, had indicted Srinivasan's sonin-law Gurunath Meiyappan in the scandal.

The bench, on Wednesday, also directed that IPL's chief operating officer Sunder Raman, whose continuance was to be decided by acting BCCI president Sunil Gavaskar, remain in the post for the time being. It also agreed to BCCI's plea in which it had sought the recordings of India captain MS Dhoni and Srinivasan's interactions with the Mudgal committee.

BCCI counsel CA Sundaram who had begun arguments seeking restoration of the board's top post to Srinivasan backed off in the face of the court aggression. Sundaram insisted that Srinivasan did not make any statement about Meiyappan before the Mudgal panel and demanded recordings before the panel to prove this.

He also denied any interference by Srinivasan in the IPL probe being conducted by the CB-CID of Tamil Nadu police as alleged by suspended IPS officer Sampath Kumar. Sundaram said in court that the BCCI had a constitution of its own which did not allow for an interim president. "The entire management has been changed in violation of the constitution," he said. But Justice Patnaik rejected this contention outright.

He insisted that the bench was only concerned with the "game of cricket in India and the reputation of players". "If cricket has to be clean, the BCCI has to maintain institutional autonomy. If the BCCI has to probe these allegations should Srinivasan be the chief ?" Keep Srinivasan Away fro