The proven misconduct by Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals officials have damaged the faith of the public in the Indian Premier League, the Board of Control for Cricket and the game so much so that any untoward incident in any game is now attributed to corruption in cricket, the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee said here on Tuesday.
Specially noting the lack of remorse shown by Gurunath Meiyappan, CSK official, the committee mentioned how he lost Rs. 60 lakh in betting, and how at the age of 40, he should have known the injury his doings would cause to cricket.
The committee refused to buy the argument of Raj Kundra, former Rajasthan Royals part-owner, that since he was a U.K. citizen, he was unaware that betting was illegal in India.
ADVERTISEMENT
“If he was truly in love with game, he would not have engaged in betting,” Justice Lodha said.
The committee went on to refresh public memory about the arrest of Rajasthan Royals’ players in a spot-fixing case some time ago.
‘Not unusual’ADVERTISEMENT
“This is not unusual because when a part-owner indulges in corrupt practices, unsavoury individuals and bad elements become bold enough to involve vulnerable elements, including players, to all sorts of corruption,” the committee said.
Imposing strict liability on India Cements Ltd., which owned CSK during the scandal, and Jaipur IPL Cricket Private Ltd., which owns Rajasthan Royals, for the illegal activities of their team officials, the judgment said neither the ICL’s claim of “long history of contributions” to cricket nor the JIPL’s claim of being the “nursery” for budding cricketers would hide the fact that all was not well with them.
This was accentuated by the fact that Mr. Meiyappan, as son-in-law of N. Srinivasan, ICL head, was the “face of the owner” and Mr. Kundra was part-owner. The verdict said the franchisees were liable for grave “general omissions”.