The silence of BCCI president N. Srinivasan and his son-in-law, Chennai Super Kings CEO Gurunath Meyyaippan, was deafening. They were incommunicado even as action in the IPL betting, spot-fixing and match-fixing investigation swung to Chennai with members of the crime branch of the Mumbai police descending on the team principal’s residence to question him on Thursday.
In the end, they could only serve notice on his staff asking Mr Meyyaippan to present himself between 11 am and 5 pm on Friday in the Mumbai office of the crime branch. Meanwhile, Mr Meyyaippan is said to have contacted the Mumbai police seeking time till Monday to appear before them as his team is in the IPL final.
Cricket board members also remained largely silent save for IPL chairman and Union minister Rajeev Shukla, who was cryptic in telling a news channel that police investigations were on and that there was no proof against Mr Srinivasan’s son-in-law.
[In New Delhi, police commissioner Neeraj Kumar said at least three more players and one more IPL team are under the scanner for spot-fixing in the IPL tournament. “We are investigating the role of another team and three more players. However, I cannot disclose the names as we are in the process of gathering evidence,” Mr Kumar told PTI here.
Asked whether the police hoped to gather evidence against the players under its scanner as they would be extra cautious, the commissioner said with a smile: May be, they have already committed the crime.”]
In another revelation, Mumbai crime branch sources claimed phone calls to at least three CSK players have been found in the call details record (CDR) of Vindoo. Investigators are yet to ascertain the nature of the relationship between Vindoo and these players.
On a day of continuous rumours about Mr Gurunath’s whereabouts, the media circus swung from his residence in Chennai’s Cenotaph Road to that of his father-in-law’s on Boat Club Road and on to Santhome, where the India Cements HQ is located in which CSK have their administrative office space too.
The spot-fixing scandal may have struck further at the heart of the credibility of the game with the withdrawal of the Pakistan umpire Asad Rauf by the ICC from the Champions Trophy to be held in England next month.
In further news on the Vindoo Dara Singh front, talk emerged of a muscular Bollywood superstar and his brother being big punters even as the name of an ex-Test player from New Delhi was dropped about his being another on the list of bettors with a bookie nexus.
Meanwhile, the mystery over where and when Mr Gurunath will surface continued with news of their legal advisers taking over how he will act further in the matter. He was said to have been advised to seek time till Monday over fears that a Friday appearance may lead to his being detained over the weekend.
On Thursday evening, Mr Ratnakar Shetty and Mr Sunder Raman of BCCI and IPL visited the Mumbai crime branch office at Crawford Market. “They had come to give a letter to us. It was regarding the Supreme Court’s recent directions to sports bodies to set up their own mechanisms to ensure the betting menace is curbed. The agencies are working on it and are setting up some kind of system and their own mechanism. They had come to solicit cooperation from us and had met other police agencies as well in this regard,” an officer said. However, neither the crime branch officials nor the BCCI clarified the need for the two top cricket administrators to visit the crime branch office late in the night.
Apart from this, the cricket officials also reportedly assured crime branch officials that they would cooperate in every possible way in the ongoing investigation. The Supreme Court, while dismissing on May 21 a petition seeking a stay on the IPL, had asked the BCCI to ensure that “cricket should remain a gentleman’s game”.