In response to summons from the Income Tax (Investigation) department on April 16, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has collected all documents related to the first group of eight franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and is prepared to submit them under oath to P.S. Sivasankaran, Assistant Director (Investigation), I-T, on Friday.
According to a top BCCI official, the documents were studied by BCCI president Shashank Manohar, Secretary N. Srinivasan, and the staff of the CAO's office at the Cricket Centre here on Thursday.
On April 16, the I-T Department asked the BCCI to submit details of transactions with the first eight franchises from IPL's inception in 2008 and details of the auction of players. The summons also stated that not submitting the documents would lead to a fine of Rs. 10,000. A senior BCCI functionary is expected to submit the documents by 3 p.m. on Friday.
The I-T department had asked the BCCI to submit the bid documents of all eight franchises, ownership/shareholding details, their addresses, entities owning the franchise and their contract with the IPL; payments made by the franchises to the BCCI/the IPL; payments made by the BCCI/the IPL to the franchises; the profit and loss account and the balance sheet of the IPL with necessary annexure; the profit and loss account and the balance sheet of the BCCI with details of income from the IPL; the treatment of income from the IPL in the BCCI books of accounts; financial transactions with money received from parties associated with the IPL; and details of the auction of players of each team since inception and the condition of payments and the actual payments made.
“We collected all that were at the IPL office. The BCCI Treasurer operates the BCCI/the IPL account and hence we have all the details in our account books. Since the IPL is only a sub-committee of the BCCI the accounts are also integrated in the BCCI's annual accounts. In fact, the first two IPL accounts have been audited,” said the senior BCCI official.
Meanwhile, Mr. Manohar told The Hindu that all decisions would be taken at the IPL Governing Council meeting on April 26. “The GC will consider all aspects and take a decision,” Mr. Manohar said. He was not inclined to comment on the possibility of IPL Chairman Lalit Modi not attending the GC meeting or of the possibility of Mr. Modi petitioning the court for a stay on the GC meeting.
It will be the first time since the launch of the IPL in 2008 that the GC members will have some details of contracts signed with different parties. A very reliable source said: “It was on March 12 [opening ceremony of the IPL at the D.Y. Patil Stadium, Mumbai] that a franchise owner from south [Not N. Srinivasan of Chennai Super Kings] cautioned the BCCI president against investing so much powers with Lalit Modi and that the time has come to establish a regulatory body and for full internal audit.”
The same source said a famous cricketer in the GC also was upset with cricketing decisions, on the matter of Strategic Time Out in particular, being taken without their advice or consent.
BCCI officials were not willing to commit on what exactly would transpire on Monday. The BCCI may issue a show-cause notice and suspend Mr. Modi from all positions, pending inquiry. If suspended, Mr. Modi will cease to be the Chairman of the IPL, CLT20, BCCI Vice-President and as a consequence he will not be allowed entry into the IPL office.
