The Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) fired a fresh salvo on Tuesday, asking State units of the Board of Control for Cricket in India to stop N. Srinivasan from chairing the BCCI’s annual general meeting in Chennai on September 29.
In a letter to board members, CAB secretary Aditya Verma cited press reports on the charge-sheet expected to be filed by the Mumbai Police in the case concerning match-fixing during Indian Premier League (IPL) matches, as the reason for keeping Srinivasan out of the BCCI.
“The police claim [umpire Asad] Rauf passed on inside information of team strategy to Vindu. This was passed on by Vindu to [Gurunath] Meiyappan and bookies… on the basis of which they placed bets.
“The police said Meiyappan had placed bets worth a few crores of rupees and even lost Rs.1 crore in spot-fixing during IPL-VI,” Verma said.
“The police claim they have solid evidence against Meiyappan.”
Meaningless
Verma said that since the two-member probe panel formed by the BCCI to investigate charges against Meiyappan had been deemed illegal by the Bombay High Court, any clean chit given by the panel was meaningless.
The BCCI has challenged the High Court’s decision in the Supreme Court.
Adding that Srinivasan himself had declared in a sworn affidavit that he would ‘step aside’ till there was a resolution of the charges, Verma said the court decision meant Srinivasan cannot be in charge of BCCI affairs.
He insisted that any attempt by Srinivasan to contest for the position of BCCI president again should be rejected “in view of the clear conflict of interest… BCCI cannot afford to have a president who will be in a permanent state of ‘step aside’ and not be involved in the day to day affairs of BCCI.”
