Just days after claiming that Gurunath Meiyappan, who was arrested for his alleged role in the IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal, was actually running the Chennai Super Kings team, Michael Hussey today made a U-turn, saying that he might have written wrongly in his autobiography.
In his book -- Underneath The Southern Cross -- CSK opener and former Australia batsman Hussey has said that the Chennai IPL team owner and BCCI president N. Srinivasan had handed the control of the franchise to his son-in-law Gurunath.
But, Hussey backtracked his assertion, saying that he was not completely clear about Gurunath’s position in the CSK team, according to a report.
“Certainly Guru was around the team a lot. I knew he was talking to Kepler (Wessels, Super Kings’ coach in IPL 2008) and the players, and we saw him at training and at the hotel.
I didn’t know what his official title was but he was around the team quite often. I probably may have written the wrong thing,” Hussey was quoted as saying on the Cricket Couch podcast on ‘ESPNcricinfo’
“I knew he was a close part of the team, no question about that, and I saw him around the team pretty much every day. (But) I am certainly not going to question the word of Mr Srinivasan. I think he would know a lot better than me about who is running the show. So maybe I got that a little bit wrong,” he insisted.
Hussey also said that he has met Srinivasan, who is the vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements which owns CSK, and has apologised.
Stating that he has cleared the air with Srinivasan when he met him during a team dinner, Hussey said, “We had a team dinner where Mr Srinivasan came along. I spoke to him very briefly about it and apologised if I caused him any grief.
“He was fine and said, ‘No, don’t worry, it is all fine. There is no issue with all you said. It was all written before all the controversies came out, anyway. You don’t have anything to worry about.’”
Hussey said he hoped to be associated with the CSK in some capacity even after he stops playing.
“I certainly hope not (that the comments in his book would affect his relationship with the franchise). I have a fantastic rapport with everyone at CSK. I get on very well with the coach. I get on very well with the players and have had a lot of success with CSK,” said Hussey.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and they are a fantastic franchise. I would love to continue there in whatever capacity in the future,” he added.
Hussey’s book had said: “Our owner was Indian Cements, headed by Mr Srinivasan. As he was also on the board of the BCCI, he gave control of the team to his son-in-law Mr Gurunath. He ran the team along with Kepler Wessels, who was coach.”
Gurunath was chargesheeted along with 21 others for gambling, cheating and criminal conspiracy, in the IPL spot-fixing and betting scandal.
