Srini to chair meeting

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Friday’s BCCI working committee meeting here assumes significance in the light of the Mumbai high court’s order terming the spot-fixing and betting probe panel as illegal further denigrating the way in which the richest cricket body in the world functions.

At face value, the agenda for the meeting was set the day the two-member panel comprising retired judges T. Jayaram Chouta and R. Balasubramanian, cleared the names of all involved in the spot-fixing and betting row in season six of the IPL. And a defiant Tamil Nadu Cricket Association president N. Srinivasan, who decided to step aside from the top position in the board after a huge uproar, is likely to make a comeback at the helm of affairs.
BCCI’s secretary Sanjay Patel confirmed on Thursday that Srinivasan will indeed chair the meeting “He (Srinivasan) is the BCCI chief and he has already started working. There is no confusion as to who will chair Friday’s working committee meeting. Nobody till now has forced Mr Srinivasan to resign,” Patel was quoted as saying.
The man himself, however, continued to avoid the media. “Will you allow me to go to my car? I am entitled to go, allow me to go. I just got hit by this camera. You cannot hit me like this with the camera. It’s not OK with me,” Srinivasan said before getting into a car.
Voices of dissent, meanwhile, which have been few and far in between till now, may gather pace keeping in mind the order. Some within the board have expressed the opinion that Srinivasan should shelve his plans of returning for time being. But Srinivasan has shown an uncanny ability to keep the revolting members in check during the row.
The meeting is likely to discuss the legal ramifications of the court order on the board and will chalk out a future course of action. Sources within the board suggest that the working committee will decide on whether to appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court or wait till the police probe into the matter is completed.
There is also a possibility of it considering to formulate a new panel to re-investigate the matter as a face-saving exercise.
Board members have remained tightlipped on whether Srinivasan will chair the meeting but if he does it will mark his return at the top after a two-month hiatus when Cricket Association of Bengal president Jagmohan Dalmiya was given charge.
Dalmiya, meanwhile, despite being the interim chief has been clueless to happenings and is not aware who is going to chair the meeting, him or Srinivasan.
“I’m totally in the dark about what's happening at the Board. I’ve not been communicated anything. I'm just hearing all these in news reports,” he had said on Thursday.