Sreesanth remains banned but what about players named in Mudgal Committee's sealed envelope?

It is now over a year since the Mudgal Committee submitted a list of 13 names to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope and we are still no closer to learning who all the players on the list are or what is being done about them.

What we do know is that one player who was accidentally named in court was part of the India’s World Cup side in 2015. There might have been more. Yet there seems to be no urgency to do anything about the players.

Admittedly, the Supreme Court did decide to deal with the administrators first and the players later but the matter has already dragged on for two years and we haven’t even finished dealing with the BCCI and how it operates.

It isn’t only that that justice delayed is justice denied but it means there is a black cloud hanging over Indian cricket and the players. If they are innocent, the sooner they are cleared, the better. If they are guilty, the longer they continue to play, the greater the crime.

Which is why the Supreme Court should at least accept the Cricket Association of Bihar petition to hand the list over the list of names to the Lodha Committee.

In his plea , Aditya Verma, the secretary of the CAB, said, “The full copy of the final report of the Justice Mudgal Committee and the sealed cover may be handed over to the Justice Lodha Committee. This is necessary because the Justice Lodha Committee has to have the benefit of the full text of the Justice Mudgal Committee report to appreciate the extent of the malaise which has set in the game of cricket so that while suggesting the administrative reforms for BCCI, it can suggest measures to ensure that, in future, the reputation of the game of cricket will not be sullied by any scam.

“If the full text of the report is not given to the Justice Lodha Committee, the time and effort spent by the Justice Mudgal Committee and the investigating team and the heavy expenditure incurred by the respective governments will go totally waste.”

Verma’s point is well made. Without the entire Mudgal Committee report, the Lodha Committee is effectively operating with a patch over one eye. It can still see, but its vision will lack depth and clarity.

Ideally, of course, the names should be out in the public domain. If the Court can divulge that IPL coo Sundar Raman is under investigation (the BCCI has not even suspended him through all this), then surely it can divulge the names of the players.

It also contrasts starkly with the way Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila have been treated by the BCCI. They were suspended immediately after news broke of their arrest and then banned after the disciplinary committee investigation. The BCCI has also insisted their bans will stand despite the court clearing them of all charges. Yet it hasn’t lifted a finger in this case.

After all if the sport is greater than any individual player, as the Lodha Committee has said, then surely protecting the players’ reputations is secondary to making sure the game is as clean as we can possibly make it.

Even allowing for the need to not sully a person’s reputation on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations, at the very least an investigation into those allegations could have been green lighted.

Granted, there are limitations of time and effort. The Lodha Committee has asked for an additional five months just to complete its investigation of the BCCI. But the cost of the delay is swiftly adding up. It is in nobody’s interest for the ledger to tip into the red.