Supreme Court urges India cricket chief to quit

Fair probe into illegal betting being hampered, says Justice Patnaik.

NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court, on Tuesday, urged the powerful head of the country’s cricket board to stand down while an investigation is conducted into illegal betting, saying his refusal to quit so far was ‘nauseating’.

A two-judge panel warned it could order N Srinivasan, regarded as the most powerful man in world cricket, to stand down unless he did so voluntarily; as his continued presence as the chief was hampering the investigation which involves his son-in-law.

“Unless the BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India] president stands down, there can be no fair investigation,” Justice AK Patnaik told the court in New Delhi. “It’s nauseating.

“Why is Srinivasan sticking to his chair? If you don’t step down, then we will pass an order.”



The bench is looking at a critical report that it commissioned last year into wrongdoings in the Indian Premier League (IPL), following a betting and spot-fixing scandal that rocked the domestic Twenty20 tournament.

The report concluded that Srinivasan’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, could be guilty of illegal betting on IPL games. This was a major blow to Srinivasan, who is due to take over as head of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in July.

Case to continue Thursday

India is also the most powerful country in world cricket due to its vast television audience which enables the board to generate almost 70% of the game’s revenues.

Meiyappan was the team principal of Chennai Super Kings, an IPL franchise owned by Srinivasan’s India Cements company and captained by skipper MS Dhoni.

The report suggested that Meiyappan may have passed on team information to outsiders for illegal betting, but did not specify what information or to whom.

The judge asked the BCCI’s lawyers to go and read a sealed section of the report and return on Thursday when the case will continue.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2014.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.