A saga of shame and intrigue

DISGRACED DUO: The suspension of Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra marks the culmination of a wretched 26-month period that witnessed many skeletons tumble out of a hyped IPL cupboard.

In the early hours of May 16, 2013, Rahul Dravid was summoned to the lobby of the Rajasthan Royals’ team hotel in Mumbai. The then-skipper presumed that perhaps some of his players had had a raucous night and the authorities wanted to inform him.

Little did he know that the news he would hear was more horrific. What he heard was about to drive a knife into the heart of the Indian Premier League, the Twenty20 behemoth which was valued at $400 million last year.

The former India captain was briefed by police officials about the alleged involvement of three team-mates — S. Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila — in spot-fixing.

The fall-out of that distant day continues to rankle and Tuesday’s verdict by the R.M. Lodha panel that suspended India Cements and Jaipur IPL, respective owners of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, for two years, in a sense marks the culmination of a wretched 26-month period that witnessed many skeletons tumble out of a hyped cupboard.

The involvement of CSK’s then official Gurunath Meiyappan and Royals’ co-owner Raj Kundra in betting; the blatant hints about a few leading franchises influencing team compositions at auctions; the exiled former IPL chairman Lalit Modi’s acerbic tweets; the then BCCI president N. Srinivasan’s denial of his son-in-law Meiyappan’s role with CSK; and the verdicts issued from the nation’s courts, all combined to unleash a scandal that could not be buried.

Anguish

Incidentally, Lodha has also banned Meiyappan and Kundra from any involvement in cricket matches for the rest of their lives. But between the bouts of self-congratulation that is bound to unite Srinivasan’s enemies within and outside the BCCI and the understandable anguish of the fans, spare a thought for the two teams that have suffered a blackout.

CSK is without doubt the most consistent team in the IPL. A two-time champion and a four-time runner-up over eight editions of the IPL, the M.S. Dhoni-led Chennai outfit has been an enduring squad exuding a ruthless calm that mirrors its skipper’s attitude. Unfortunately, Meiyappan’s betting amounts to insider-trading and CSK has to bear the burden of his guilt.

If CSK was about dominance and a fixed core group, Royals was all about the surprise-quotient, the ‘sum-is-bigger-than-the-parts’ philosophy and the embracing of all types of players — the character that is Shane Warne or the studious legend that is Dravid.

Throw in unsung heroes into the mix and Royals was ready to win too as evident from the title-triumph in the inaugural edition during 2008. Terribly for the team, the tragic flaws of three cricketers, and the alleged gambling instinct of its former co-owner has proved fatal.

Countering the verdict There will be moves afoot to counter Lodha’s verdict, secret parleys to change ownership patterns so that the teams survive, and even last-gasp attempts to release players into the auction pool but the sad truth is that the league has been besmirched.

A six-team IPL will scuttle the brand and this was the same league that helped the Swapnil Asnodkars, the Shadab Jakatis and the Palani Amarnaths find their little moments in the sun! Just like India Cements that provided a stable life to many aspiring cricketers thanks to its teams in the Chennai league, the IPL too cannot be painted entirely in black. It has its finer points; it’s just that greed almost has had the final say and the fear is that the next words could be ‘The End’.

IPL FIASCO- TIMELINE

2013

May 16: S. Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila arrested by the Delhi Police on charges of fraud and cheating. BCCI suspends the three players.

May 23: The Mumbai Police summons Gurunath Meiyappan for questioning. He is then arrested on May 24 on charges of cheating, fraud and forgery.

May 25: India Cements distances the franchise from Gurunath, stating that he is neither the owner, nor CEO /Team Principal.

June 6: Delhi’s police commissioner Neeraj Kumar says that Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra had confessed to betting on IPL matches. BCCI suspends Kundra pending inquiry.

July 28: The BCCI appoints a two-member panel but it finds “no evidence of any wrongdoing”.

July 30: Following a PIL by the Cricket Association of Bihar, the Bombay High Court says that BCCI’s probe panel was constituted illegally.

September 13: The BCCI bans Sreesanth and Chavan from playing cricket.

October 8: The Supreme Court constitutes a three-member probe panel headed by Mukul Mudgal to conduct an independent investigation.

*****

2014

February 10: Mudgal probe panel’s first report finds evidence that Gurunath and Raj Kundra indulged in betting.

March 25: Supreme Court asks BCCI president N. Srinivasan to step down to allow for a fair investigation.

November 14: The Supreme Court names Srinivasan, IPL chief operating officer Sundar Raman, Gurunath and Kundra in connection with the Mudgal report.

November 17: The Mudgal report finds Srinivasan not guilty of either betting or fixing, or of trying to prevent the investigation.

*****

2015

January 22: The Supreme Court strikes down the clause in the BCCI’s constitution that allowed board officials to have a commercial interest in the IPL and the Champions League T20.

Justice R.M. Lodha committee appointed to decide on the quantum of punishment for Meiyappan and Kundra and for the respective franchises.

July 14: India Cements Ltd. (ICL) and Jaipur IPL Pvt. Ltd. (JIPL) banned from the Indian Premier League for two years. Gurunath and Kundra suspended for life.