IPL COO SUNDAR RAMAN QUITS
WAS BEING PROBED IN FIXING SCANDAL
MUMBAI: After Lalit Modi and N Srinivasan, Indian Premier League’s Chief Operating Officer Sundar Raman became the third high-profile victim to be consumed by the controversies in the League.
Under investigation for his alleged role in the spot-fixing and betting scandal that emerged in the 2013 edition of the League, Raman submitted his resignation to the BCCI president Shashank Manohar in Nagpur on Monday. Raman will have to depose before the Supreme Court appointed Justice RM Lodha Committee on November 15.
ULTIMATUM
It was learnt that Manohar had given Raman the option of resigning on his own or he would have been asked to step down during BCCI’s Annual General Meeting in Mumbai on November 9. The BCCI on Tuesday readily accepted his resignation. Raman’s ouster seems part of a clean-up operation promised by Shashank Manohar.
The Supreme Court last year had given Sunil Gavaskar the powers to decide Raman’s fate. However, the former India captain chose to use his services to shift the first phase of the League to the United Arab Emirates.
Raman’s position in the IPL was always under threat once Manohar took charge at BCCI in October.
The Supreme Court appointed Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee had named the IPL COO in its report following which Manohar had called for Raman’s resignation. “Raman should have gone immediately after the Mudgal Committee report found him prima facie guilty of wrongdoings,” Manohar had said.
The Mudgal report mentioned that Raman knew a contact of a bookie and contacted him eight times in one season. Raman was named as Individual 12 in the report. When questioned by the Mudgal panel, Raman had admitted, he knew a contact of the bookie, but claimed to be unaware of his connection with betting activities. Raman also faces allegations of not acting on spot-fixing complaints during the 2013 IPL.
INEVITABLE
The 43-year-old embattled cricket administrator will leave the Board on Thursday. “It (Raman’s sacking) was very much on the cards after Srinivasan’s exit. We have been hearing it for a long time,” said a member of the Board. “The current regime wanted to learn everything from Raman about the running of the IPL and the Board matters so they kept him for some time,” he said.
Raman has been with the IPL since inception, first serving as the right-hand man of Modi and then Srinivasan’s.
The League has been plagued by controversies right through but Raman mastered the art of survival. It was widely expected that when Modi was ousted, Srinivasan would sack Raman as well, but he rose to become an even more powerful in the BCCI and then in the International Cricket Council.
ramansays I don’t think anybody wants their name in that list, most certainly not even wish to even be alleged in the way it has been. I have been cooperating in whatever way it is required and I will continue to do so. I don’t think it is about regrets or no regrets. There is always scope and opportunity to learn. We are all richer by our experiences. I would certainly take on every aspect of the learning that I have been able to get here.