The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned to March 25 further hearing in the case relating to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, saying it needed time to go through the BCCI’s reply to the recommendations of a panel that probed the betting and match-fixing scam in the Indian Premier League.
A Bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and Ibrahim Kalifulla took on record the BCCI’s reply.
The BCCI accepted most of the recommendations of the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee and informed the court that the IPL operational rules would apply to Chennai Super Kings for having Gurunath Meiyappan as a team official, who indulged in betting, and sanctions would follow post-enquiry as per law.
The Board agreed to clean up the IPL and the sport in general but refused to separate the IPL from the BCCI, insisting that it owned and operated the tournament. It also turned down the recommendation to keep players away from employment by the parent companies of their IPL franchises.
It said: “There is no tangible reason why a cricketer should not be employed by a franchise. There is absolutely no basis to believe that the owner of the franchise would influence his employee who may play for another franchise.”
