Srinivasan retains BCCI chief post

Official unanimously re-elected for 2013-14 as body’s president.

NEW DELHI: India’s embattled cricket chief N Srinivasan won a third term in office yesterday even though a Supreme Court order bars him from taking charge immediately due to a corruption scandal.

The 68-year-old cement tycoon, one of the most powerful men in world cricket, was elected unopposed for another year at the annual meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Chennai.

“Mr N Srinivasan was unanimously elected as president of the BCCI for the year 2013-14,” said a statement from the cricket board, without elaborating. It only detailed the names of office-bearers and members of various committees.

The Supreme Court had on Friday barred Srinivasan from taking charge until it has ruled on a petition against him over a spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League, a popular Twenty20 event.

A cricket body in the eastern state of Bihar which is not affiliated to the BCCI had asked the court to prevent Srinivasan from heading the BCCI on moral grounds because his son-in-law had been charged in the scandal.

The son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, is among several officials, players and bookmakers charged with cheating and criminal conspiracy, although the BCCI chief himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The BCCI did not say who will head the body until the Supreme Court’s verdict, or whether fresh elections will be held if Srinivasan is subsequently barred from holding office.

Srinivasan temporarily stepped aside as president in June when Meiyaappan was named in the scandal, and handed interim control to Jagmohan Dalmiya, a former head of the International Cricket Council.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2013.

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