Another term still likely for BCCI head
NARAYANASWAMI Srinivasan, the most powerful man in cricket, faces a last-ditch challenge to his reinstatement this weekend as head of India’s board, days after his son-in-law was charged in a corruption scandal.
The combative president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should be a shoo-in at Sunday’s annual meeting in Chennai given that nobody came forward to contest his re-election for a third year in office. But he faces a new hurdle tomorrow after India’s supreme court agreed to consider a request brought by a cricket association in eastern Bihar state, for an injunction against Srinivasan to prevent him from standing for election.
Cricket’s superpower India generates 70% of the game’s revenue due to its vast television audiences and, as a result, the BCCI largely gets its way in all significant decisions on the game’s future.
But the hearing is yet another headache for the 68-year-old, who had to nominally step aside from the helm of the BCCI in June when his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was named as a suspect in a corruption inquiry. Meiyappan was on Saturday charged with cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy as part of a police investigation into claims of spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), a Twenty20 tournament run by the BCCI.
Meiyappan had been the team principal of one of the top IPL teams, the Chennai Super Kings, which is owned by Srinivasan, when the scandal broke.
But while charging of Meiyappan has emboldened Srinivasan’s critics, it has not stopped the man himself from seeking to resume his innings at the helm of the wealthiest and most powerful cricketing body in the world.
“I am not disqualified and neither can you push me out,” Srinivasan said after charges were laid against Meiyappan. However, many of the game’s leading figures, including former BCCI president Inderjit Singh Bindra, argue that such a stance is untenable, and that Srinivasan has no moral or ethical right to seek another term.
Ajay Shirke, who resigned as board treasurer in May as the scandal unfolded, told the Mumbai-based DNA newspaper that the BCCI had become a “a laughing stock” with the allegations against Meiyappan.
The scandal, which involves several other matches, has seen two Rajasthan Royals players, Test fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and upcoming spinner Ankeet Chavan, banned for life by the BCCI.
The Indian Express wrote in an editorial that “given that Srinivasan is the owner of Chennai Super Kings and the father-in-law of Meiyappan, it is risible that he is now on the verge of being reinstated as BCCI chief.”
But even his critics concede Srinivasan is a wily operator.
A BCCI insider told AFP that Srinivasan would “not take victory for granted”, but nevertheless had reason to be confident.
“When strings are pulled, the puppets fall in line,” said the source.