Resuming the hearing related to the Indian Premier League (IPL) spot-fixing and betting scandal, the Supreme Court on Monday said that the cash-rich tournament is a mutual beneficial society between BCCI and IPL.
Making some stringent observations over the report submitted by the Mudgal panel, the Supreme Court told BCCI that the common man’s trust has been shaken and it’s time to uphold the glory of the game.
Supreme Court’s observation comes as a huge blow for Srinivasan as they asked him to come clean on the issue of conflict of interest by being board president and Chennai Super Kings owner simultaneously.
The SC asked BCCI how members who are financially viable have gone on to become team owners in IPL and how is that not a conflict of interest.
The SC also stated that cricket must be played in its true spirit and should remain a gentleman’s game and BCCI allowing things like spot-fixing and betting to happen is killing the game of cricket.
During the proceedings, the BCCI reiterated the fact that N Srinivasan should be reinstated as the chief since there are no charges against him.
Last week, the BCCI decided to stand behind N Srinivasan and IPL COO Sundar Raman, after an emergency working committee meeting on November 18.
With the SC clearing Srinivasan of betting and match-fixing charges, the latter had sought the apex body to reinstate him as the BCCI president and to allow CSK to play in the IPL.
The Mudgal Committee, which had submitted its report on November 17 had said that N Srinivasan, along with four other BCCI officials, was aware of the violation of the Players Code of Conduct by a player mentioned as ‘Individual 3′ in Mudgal report, but no action was taken by any of them.
The Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee also came out with a severe indictment of IPL CEO Sunder Raman who it said knew of a contact of a bookie and had contacted him eight times in one season but did nothing about it.
Earlier, on 14th November, the SC had disclosed seven names that were probed by the Justice Mudgal Committee.
The big names included that of ICC boss N Srinivasan, his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, and Rajasthan Royals’ co-owner Raj Kundra. Meiyappan had already been indicted following an incident where a Forensic Science Laboratory in Mumbai confirmed his voice samples in a tapped conversation with another accomplice Vindoo Dara Singh.
Names of three active players were inadvertently mentioned initially. However, the honorable court decided to strike off their names considering the sensitivity of the issue and the possible far reaching implications of this disclosure on their career.
