The Supreme
Court has said it will pass an order on the Indian Premier League spot-fixing
and betting scandal on Friday and has proposed that former India captain Sunil
Gavaskar could take over as the interim chief of the Board of Control for
Cricket in India in place of its embattled president N. Srinivasan.
Gavaskar
told media, "I will be happy to do what the Supreme Court asks me to do. I
will feel honored."
The court on
Thursday also suggested that Indian Premier League teams Chennai Super Kings
and Rajasthan Royals should not be part of the seventh season beginning in the
United Emirates on April 16, as they are being investigated in the case. Both
teams are former champions, with Chennai winning the IPL twice.
The Supreme
Court bench has also proposed that no one associated with Srinivasan's company
India Cements should be part of the BCCI. India Cements owns CSK and it also
employs Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sunder Raman, the man who runs
the IPL. Srinivasan is the Managing Director of Indian Cements.
The court
has asked the Board to reply to its proposals on Friday.
On Tuesday,
the court had said that N. Srinivasan should step down as BCCI president to
ensure a fair inquiry into the IPL betting and match-fixing scandal and had
given the Board two days to respond. The two-judge bench slammed what it called
Srinivasan's "nauseating"
refusal to resign while allegations of illegal betting and spot-fixing
involving his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan an official of the CSK, are being
investigated.
A final
order is expected on April 16, the day IPL 7 is scheduled to start. Mumbai
Indians, the defending champions, will clash with Kolkata Knight Riders in the
first match at Abu Dhabi.
In court on
Thursday, the BCCI offered that Srinivasan could "step aside" while a
time-bound inquiry was conducted in the case. It also appealed that Srinivasan
be allowed to take over as the International Cricket Council's first chairman
of the Executive Committee, come July.
Harish
Salve, who is representing petitioner Aditya Verma, secretary of the Cricket
Association of Bihar, sought a criminal investigation into spot-fixing
allegations and petitioned that the Chennai Super Kings team should be
terminated.
A
court-appointed committee headed by retired High Court judge Justice Mukul
Mudgal had on February 10 said that it had found the involvement of Meiyappan
in the illegal betting case. The
committee had been set up by the Supreme Court in October last year.
The BCCI's
lawyers on Thursday requested the judges to let the Board hold its own inquiry
as recommended by the Mudgal report. "We will have to think hard for the
benefit of cricket and then pass the order," the Supreme Court bench said.
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