How the panel was formed

It was virtually smooth sailing for BCCI interim president Shivlal Yadav in his endeavour to form a three-member panel to take the IPL-6-related corruption allegations forward as mandated by the Supreme Court.

The working committee gave a 15-0 nod to Jai Narayan Patel, former Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. Justice Patel was proposed by Yadav. A top BCCI functionary told The Hindu that the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) representative, Bharat Raman, abstained from voting.

Dissenting voice

The committee gave a 15-1 decision in favour of Ravi Shastri, former India captain, and R.K. Raghavan, former CBI Director. In all, 17 members entitled to vote attended the meeting and 16 were present for voting.

Former BCCI president Shashank Manohar was the sole dissenting voice against Raghavan and Shastri.

The BCCI office-bearers argued that Shastri, an IPL ethics commission member and a cricketer of integrity, will be helpful to the other two members. Shastri, employed with the BCCI as commentator, will not be paid honorarium until the probe committee presents its report.

Not long ago, Shastri, while delivering the Dilip Sardesai memorial lecture, praised Sharad Pawar and N. Srinivasan for their administrative qualities. A very senior BCCI official said: “The Supreme Court nominated Sunil Gavaskar as president, BCCI, for IPL-7. He is also on contract with BCCI for commentary work. Cricketers like Gavaskar and Shastri are above suspicion.”

Yadav worked to get a consensus before the start of the committee, but could not prevent a situation where the secretary had to call for a division. The results proved one-sided.

Should the apex court approve of the working committee decision, the three-member panel will be engaged to probe the allegations against Srinivasan and 12 prominent cricketers submitted in a sealed cover by the Mudgal committee.

Patel, Raghavan and Shastri will also have access to the reports submitted by the BCCI’s first probe panel comprising retired judges T. Jayaram Chouta and R. Balasubramanian, and the report submitted by the Supreme Court-appointed panel consisting of Justice Mukul Mudgal, L. Nageshwar Rao, Additional Solicitor General of India, and Nilay Dutta, senior advocate and member, Assam Cricket Association.