Gavaskar takes BCCI reins

Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals have been cleared to play in this year's Indian Premier League by the country's Supreme Court, while former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has been installed as interim BCCI president for the Twenty20 tournament.

The Supreme Court of India had earlier recommended both franchises be excluded from this year's tournament and that Narayanaswami Srinivasan be removed from the BCCI's presidency while the Court continues to examine allegations of corruption in the IPL.

The court made the interim order today after hearing from the BCCI counsel. Gavaskar's position relates only to duties surrounding the IPL, while Shivlal Yadav, the board's most senior vice-president, will take over for other matters not related to the IPL.

The Court's decision to allow the Chennai and Rajasthan franchises to remain in the IPL was welcomed by the BCCI's lawyers.

"We told the court that at this juncture, especially since everything is unverified, we could not stop any team in playing in the IPL," CA Sundaram, one of the board's lawyers, said after the hearing.

"It would have affected the tournament as well as millions of cricket-loving public. We are very happy that the court has not passed any order that would have interrupted the tournament."

Gavaskar, who is currently employed by the BCCI as a television commentator but will now give up those duties to focus on his new role, told Indian news channel NDTV that he would be happy to take up the BCCI presidency.

“When the highest court in the land tells you to do something then you have no choice in the matter,” Gavaskar said.

“I will consider (it) a huge privilege and a huge honour.”

The court had earlier proposed that Srinivasan, who will take up his position of Chairman of the International Cricket Council in July and is managing director of India Cements which owns the Chennai Super Kings franchise, should step down from his position with the BCCI to enable a fair inquiry into spot fixing in the IPL.

A two-judge panel had previously reported that Srinivasan’s position was hampering the investigation, which involves his son-in-law.

The court proceedings have led to delays in preparations for this year’s IPL with a planned media conference to launch the event in Abu Dhabi postponed until further notice.

The Supreme Court had proposed that the 2014 IPL be allowed to begin as planned on April 16 on the proviso that the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are excluded. But the court has now backed down from that position and the tournament will continue with all teams.

The Rajasthan Royals’ team is to be captained by Australian all-rounder Shane Watson, and their squad features fellow Australians Steve Smith, Brad Hodge, James Faulkner, Kane Richardson and Ben Cutting.

The Chennai Super Kings, crowned IPL champions in 2010 and 2011 and a finalist for the past four years, have Australians Ben Hilfenhaus and John Hastings on their 2014 playing roster.

None of these players have been implicated in the investigation, which was triggered when former Indian Test bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and his Rajasthan Royals teammate Ankeet Chavan were arrested in May 2013 on suspicion of taking money to concede a minimum number of runs.

Sreesanth denied any wrongdoing, but both players were banned for life by the BCCI.

Captain of the Chennai Super Kings, Indian Test skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has also been mentioned during this week’s court proceedings

Harish Salve, a senior lawyer representing the Cricket Association of Bihar – which lodged the initial petition that has led to the current hearing – claimed Dhoni was guilty of “indulging in corrupt conduct” when he appeared before a committee appointed last year to investigate corruption in the IPL.

That court-appointed committee, headed by retired judge Mukul Mudgal, submitted a report that found Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was employed as a team official of the Chennai Super Kings and had indulged in betting and passing on information during the 2013 IPL.

Salve told the Supreme Court this week that Dhoni, who was also employed as a vice-president of India Cements as well as being Super Kings’ captain, along with Srinivasan and India Cements officials had given evidence to the Mudgal committee to the effect that Gurunath “had nothing to do with the cricketing affairs of the Chennai Super Kings and was a mere cricket enthusiast supporting Super Kings”.

Salve said that in denying any knowledge of Gurunath’s role with the franchise “the Indian cricket captain has been indulging in corrupt conduct”.

Dhoni, who is currently leading India at the ICC World T20 tournament in Bangladesh, has declined to conduct media interviews and indicated he won’t speak publicly until India’s World T20 campaign is over.