Spot fixing: Setback for N Srinivasan as Supreme Court refuses to stay Bombay High Court order

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New Delhi: In what can be seen as a huge setback to BCCI's president-in-exile, N Srinivasan, the Supreme Court refused to stay the order of the Bombay High Court which had decreed that the internal probe panel of the cricket board, comprising two retired judges, and the report that the panel submitted, was "unconstitutional and illegal". The apex Court also issued a notice to the petitioner, the Cricket Association of Bihar.
BCCI had decided to challenge the order of the Bombay High Court by moving the apex court against it.
With the High Court ruling coming days before the scheduled BCCI working committee on August 2, Srinivasan's planned return to the helm of the cricket board was in severe jeopardy. The ruling of the HC was met with furore by those in the higher echelons of the BCCI.
However, in the wake of the Bombay HC's ruling, even the interim BCCI president, Jagmohan Dalmiya was forced to concede that Srinivasan returning to the BCCI as its supremo wasn't ethical.
The report submitted by the probe panel had exonerated both Srinivasan's son-in-law-cum-principal of Chennai Super Kings, Gurunath Meiyappan, and Rajasthan Royals' co-owner, Raj Kundra, of charges of betting on their own teams. The findings of the report sparked widespread outrage with everyone howling about how this had been done only to facilitate Srinivasan's return to the BCCI.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police chargesheeted as many as 39 persons in the spot fixing scandal with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim being the most prominent one. Cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila were also named in the chargesheet and the provisions of the MCOCA were invoked against all those named in the chargesheet.