After artfully dodging a few bouncers, BCCI chief N Srinivasan found himself teetering on the very brink on Wednesday, as calls for his removal from the post of the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) acquired an urgent shrillness, says a report in The Hindu.
While chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Rajeev Shukla demanded that Mr. Srinivasan “stay away” [from the BCCI’s investigation process], Sharad Pawar, former president of both the Board and the International Cricket Council, said, “The BCCI’s reputation has taken a hit.”
According to The Hindu, Mr. Shukla, who met president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association Arun Jaitley, said: “He [Srinivasan] is an elected president. We are of the view, even Mr. Jaitley feels so, that it is good if he stays away from this procedure [of the enquiry commission going into spot-fixing allegations and the involvement of Mr. Srinivasan’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, in betting on the games].”
Meanwhile the DNA reports that pressure mounted from within the BCCI on N Srinivasan to resign as its President today with two Board heavyweights, Rajeev Shukla and Arun Jaitley, asking him to "disassociate" himself from the inquiry proceedings against his son-in-law and IPL franchise CSK.
“Interestingly, Shukla, who is also the IPL Chairman, did not utter the word resignation in reference to Srinivasan when he met the press after a meeting with Jaitley, a BCCI Vice President. Shukla's demand came on a day the Union Sports Ministry also entered the fray to ask for Srinivasan's resignation on moral grounds. There has been relentless media pressure on the "silence" of the BCCI officials on the issue of Srinivasan's continuance,” says the DNA report.
The new momentum against Srinivasan, who owns CSK, grew a day after Board functionary Jyotiraditya Scindia asked him to resign pending the inquiry against his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, who was the Team Principal of CSK, before being arrested on charges of betting.
"Till the pendency of inquiry, he should disassociate himself from the procedure as earlier also, it was discussed that he should disassociate. Disassociate, what it means is very clear.
However, Lalu Prasad's RJD today said since there was no criminal liability on BCCI President N Srinivasan in the IPL spot-fixing scandal, he need not resign from his post, says a report in Deccan Chronicle.
"There is no criminal liability on him (Srinivasan) so he need not quit," senior RJD leader and Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) Working President Abdul Bari Siddiqui told PTI. RJD chief Lalu Prasad is the President of BCA.
Law makes it clear that even in case of son or wife of a person found indulging in any illegal act, the criminal liability is not transfered to the man, Siddiqui, who is Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly, said. The BCA Working President said that a fact-finding team of BCCI disciplinary Committee is probing the spot-fixing issue and truth would come forward.