The apex judicial body of India, Supreme Court is set to hear the petition filed by the BCCI where the governing body of Indian cricket has challenged the July 30 ruling of the Bombay High Court. That ruling regarding probe panel set up by the BCCI to determine the wrongdoings of Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra in the recently concluded IPL, had stated that the panel was itself not in line with the constitution of the BCCI and was thus an illegal one. Incidentally the panel had found both of them to be not guilty owing to lack of sufficient evidence.
In its Special Leave Petition that was filed by the BCCI on August 5, 2013, the richest sports body in India had stated the panel was constituted in a lawful manner and the constitution of the organization was indeed followed while setting the panel up. The BCCI contends that the Bombay High Court made a mistake by fielding a public interest litigation (PIL) against itself as it is a private entity. They have also questioned the justification of the stand taken by the Cricket Association of Bihar as well as Aditya Verma, who acts as its secretary, in challenging the two man probe panel.
The BCCI is of the opinion that the order of the Bombay High Court was contradictory and has, at the same time, admitted that it does have the right to set up such bodies. Now the question is what will happen when the verdict comes out. There are two possibilities – the first is that the BCCI wins, the Bombay High Court order is declared null and void and Kundra and Meiyappan are reinstated to their seats of glory as owners of franchises in the Indian Premier League and life shall go on as we know.
What will happen if BCCI loses? I don’t think much – perhaps we will see the last of Srinivasan as the President but then his place shall be taken over by another one of his ilk like Jagmohan Dalmiya. The problems of having businessmen in a sports body in a money-first culture like India are pretty evident now – perhaps the only solution is to have them on an advisory capacity and let cricketers look at the administration. After all there are plenty of educated and successful cricketers in India and I believe they will bring in a lot of credibility to the overall administration rather than power hungry individuals with very little interest in the ultimate development of the game.
