The BCCI is expected to stage a meeting of the Working Committee today where it is supposed to discuss the ruling of the Bombay High Court that the two member panel, which it had set up to investigate the wrongdoings of Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra, and which ultimately pronounced them not guilty owing to lack of sufficient evidence, was an illegal one. As per media reports some interesting possibilities and scenarios have come up that are making the whole affair appear to be a mouth watering prospect for anyone looking for boardroom excitement!
To start with, Srinivasan is supposed to attend the meeting as the head of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association and it is supposed to be lead by Jagmohan Dalmiya who is serving as the interim President. Sanjay Patel, the BCCI secretary, has however stated that Srinivasan will lead the meeting as he is the President and there is no doubt regarding that as no one has asked him to resign as yet. The board, however, is divided on Srinivasan’s status after the ruling of the Bombay High Court. 16 important members of the working committee such as Arun Jaitley, Ravi Sawant, Sudhir Dalbir, Anurag Thakur and Shiv Lal Yadav want him to be reinstated while 8 members are not in favour of the same.
Interestingly enough Srinivasan still has the support of 10 state associations like Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The ones against Srinivasan may look to take legal action if he attends the meeting. There are several members who are also likely to question the justification of him attending the meeting after what has transpired recently. In its ruling the Bombay High Court had made it clear that at least one member of the three man probe panel should have been a BCCI official but since that was not followed the probe was declared to be an illegal one.
Today’s Working Committee meeting is an important one as the decision to move against the Bombay High Court ruling shall be taken today. However, media reports suggest that it is not likely that any such thing shall happen. The board may also decide to institute a fresh probe panel to look into the whole spot fixing thing. Arun Jaitley, the vice-president of BCCI, is supposed to interpret the report of the probe panel and then inform the board about the same.
Amidst this hullabaloo there are a few questions that obviously come to mind – why are most of the BCCI working committee members trying to save him? Is there more to it than what meets the eye? The most important thing is that what effect will this have on the national team – we all know a stable administrative environment is a prerequisite when it comes to a successful sports team and the Indian cricket team is no exception. The question is when will the BCCI officials realize this – when will they understand that the cricketers, and not them, should be hogging all the limelight?
