BCCI vice-president Niranjan Shah on Sunday said N. Srinivasan could return as BCCI chief and chair the IPL governing council meeting on August 2 as the probe panel has found no evidence against his team Chennai Super Kings in the IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal.
“He himself has stepped down and now as probe is already finished, given to the working committee already, Srinivasan can come any time he wants to. He can chair the meeting,” Shah said when asked if Srinivasan could do so at the GC meeting in the capital.
The Board’s working committee and the IPL governing council will meet to take a final call on the issue after the two-member panel, comprising former high court judges T. Jayaram Chouta and R. Balasubramanian, submitted its report to the BCCI working committee which met in Kolkata on the day.
The panel was mandated to enquire into the roles of Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, who was the team prinicipal of Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals and its co-owner Raj Kundra.
Shah said, “If there is any substantial thing coming out later on in court of law or in police investigation then I think the things will still stand, means, if they are charge-sheeted then, and if it is proven in the court of law, I think automatically then they are out of the BCCI.”
The IPL spot-fixing scandal broke out when S. Sreesanth, along with two other Rajasthan Royals players Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan and 11 bookies, was arrested for alleged spot-fixing in the IPL.
It snowballed into a crisis for the BCCI when board president Srinivasan’s son-in-law was arrested on charges of betting on May 26.
A internal probe panel, originally comprising former judges Chouta, Balasubramanian and the then BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale, was constituted on May 28 to investigate the allegations against Meiyappan, who maintained his innocence after getting bail.
Srinivasan, who owns the CSK franchise, remained defiant through the turmoil and refused to resign but had to step aside as BCCI president after a stormy emergent board meeting on June 2 where Dalmiya took charge of an interim arrangement to run the Board’s affairs pending the inquiry.
The upheaval led to the resignations of board secretary Sanjay Jagdale following which treasurer Ajay Shirke, who asked for Srinivasan’s resignation on moral grounds, also resigned.