Despite the Supreme Court of India asking the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Narayanswami Srinivasan to step down, he is unlikely to do so and is exploring all legal options available to him.
The apex court had warned the BCCI chief on Tuesday that if he doesn’t resign within two days, they will be forced to pass an order for him to quit.
The beleaguered Srinivasan, who underwent a cataract surgery yesterday, had a series of meetings with legal experts during the day though no official word as to what he plans to do has come out yet.
His legal counsel P. S. Raman also met him at his residence but declined to speak on the issue.
“He had a cataract operation in the other eye this morning. I have come to meet him because of that. It is only a courtesy call,” Raman said.
Former Test spinner and current BCCI vice-president Shivlal Yadav confirmed to a television channel earlier in the day that Srinivasan was not going to resign.
“BCCI will wait for the top court’s order to decide its future course of action,” he told NDTV.
During Tuesday’s hearing in New Delhi, Justice A.K. Patnaik had said there could be “no fair investigation” into the betting scandal while Srinivasan remained at the helm of the board.
The court is looking at a damning report that it commis-sioned last year into wrongdoings in the Indian Premier League following a betting and spot-fixing scandal that rocked the Twenty20 league.
Released in February, the report concluded that Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and a key member of the Chennai Super Kings management team, could be guilty of illegal betting on IPL games.
The calls for Srinivasan’s resignation though is growing within his own ranks.
“Mr Srinivasan’s position may have become untenable as the BCCI president following the observations made by the Supreme Court,” BCCI vice president Ravi Savant said. “He should step down, else the BCCI and Indian cricket will lose credibility.”
The scandal has generated huge media coverage in the cricket-crazy country, dominating some newspaper front-pages less than a fortnight before a general election.
“SC tongue-lashing sets stage for Srini’s exit” was the front-page headline of The Times of India, while the Mail Today said Srinivasan had been “given out” by the court.
Several leading cricketers have piled in to demand Srinivasan’s resignation, including World Cup-winner Mohinder Amarnath who said no one was “bigger than the game”.
“He must respect the law and do what the Supreme Court wants him to do,” Amarnath said. “He needs to step down.”
Inderjit Singh Bindra, who was the president of the BCCI between 1993 and 1996, was scathing in his remarks and said the court has vindicated what he has been saying for over a year.
“It’s a moment of shame for us to see the game gaining such disrepute across the globe for a single man’s obsession with power. Quit before you drag Indian cricket down the gutter along with yourself,” Bindra wrote in his blog.
“What stung me most was the use of the word ‘nauseating’ by the apex court in describing BCCI and its chief, N Srinivasan. If that is not reason enough for someone to be ashamed, I wonder what is? It has been over 24 hours and the BCCI and its chief have taken no action as yet.”
The court will reconvene today (Thursday) although it was not clear whether the judges would carry through their threat to impose an order for Srinivasan’s resignation.
