His son-in-law could well turn out to be the Achilles Heel of Indian cricket czar N. Srinivasan. Given his history, the tangle would have been a minimal stumbling block if Gurunath Meiyyapan had not been linked so deeply with the Bollywood ‘fixer’ Vindoo.
With a crack legal team pulling him back from the brink on many occasions, Srinivasan may well have imagined that he was up against another temporary storm. The disowning of ‘Guru’ by India Cements, owners of the Chennai Super Kings, is part of the team’s legal strategy.
With pressure building right at the top not only in terms of legal implications of the Mumbai police seeking Gurunath’s presence but also with the top brass of BCCI deciding that it was time to act in consultation with the government, the cricket crisis has come to a tipping point.
The visit of IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla and BCCI vice-president Arun Jaitley to law minister Kapil Sibal’s chambers had more to it than a mere consultation on the new anti-fixing law that is being proposed.
A long-time opponent of Srinivasan in the local Chennai league who had subsequently joined forces with him now believes the game has moved on and that the board was moving into check mate mode.
“It’s clear that even those who had always fallen in line with Srinivasan’s diktats in the BCCI are now thinking differently, but still not really speaking up. The only person who says it as they are to the BCCI president’s face is Jaitley. His presence at that meeting shows several options are being considered for the immediate future of the board.”
It’s apparent that Jaitley, who was to become the president-elect at BCCI’s annual meeting in September could be named as interim president. By BCCI rules, Shivlal Yadav, South Zone vice-president should be in the chair if for any reason the present president steps down. But rules could lose their context if the government decides to step in to save the game.
Srinivasan seems to have lost his game of ‘control’ over events. Being accustomed to having his way, the BCCI president had defied every norm in terms of conflicts of interest ever since the IPL was formed and his India Cements became a natural bidder for a franchise.
The board’s constitution was changed to allow an honorary member to take a commercial interest in cricket. Former BCCI president A.C. Muthiah objected to this and went up to Supreme Court but a split verdict sustains the status quo and Srinivasan is confident an order will never come necessitating his having to give up one or the other.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni was Chennai Super Kings’ prize catch. While all franchises were free to bid for him at the first auction, CSK were determined to have him at any cost because they knew what the connection could do for Chennai cricket.
The next smart move was to employ national selection committee chairman Kris Srikkanth as the brand ambassador for CSK. This bonding of BCCI secretary who was also convener of the selection committee meetings, the chief selector and the Indian captain was adversely commented upon but CSK brazened it out, leaving the challengers out in the cold. There were recorded complaints from Lalit Modi that favourable umpires were being allotted to CSK matches but nothing came of that either.
Cricket’s law of Omerta might mean that no one from within the game was speaking up or lashing out at the tricky situation the head honcho is in because of the huge conflict of interests built up on several fronts. A very old principle of Indian cricket has been “Don’t rock the boat” since the game followed passionately by millions has been the lucky charm for hundreds of cricketers and administrators.
The cabalistic structure of the game meant Srinivasan could go on increasing his association with the game despite the obvious conflicts of interests. First, as BCCI official he also successfully bid for an IPL team, Chennai Super Kings which went on to bag Dhoni.