Srinivasan should ‘stay away’ till probe is on: Shukla
New Delhi : Amid mounting calls for BCCI president N. Srinivasan’s exit, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla Wednesday asked him to “step away” till the probe into his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan’s role in the spot fixing scandal gets over.
Shukla said after meeting Board of Control for Cricket in India vice president Arun Jatiley here that they have requested Srinivasan to step aside till Meiyappan’s role in betting on IPL matches in investigated.
Jaitley is also an Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council member and a member of the BCCI’s disciplinary committee.
“He (Srinivasan) is an elected president. In our opinion, he should stay away till the probe against his son-in-law is on,” Shukla told the media here.
“We are concerned about the image of the board. We have requested him to step down till the probe is over, it is up to him to decide.
“He says he has done no wrong. It is his view. We want a proper investigation in this matter, and we want the guilty to be punished,” said Shukla.
Srinivasan has insisted that he won’t resign as he has done no wrong. Gurunath, who is in police custody, was the chief executive of Chennai Super Kings, which is owned by Srinivasan’s India Cements company.
The first public demand for Srinivasan’s resignation by a board official came from Jyotiraditya Scindia, head of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association and chairman of BCCI’s finance committee.
“It is in the interest of propriety and of the game, when there is a question mark surrounding an individual, the team and the manager of that team who happens to be a family member, I believe in all sense of the word propriety that Srinivasan must step aside,” Scindia said.
Scindia is also on the disciplinary committee that is probing former IPL chairman Lalit Modi.
Shukla, Jaitley and Scindia have punctured Srinivasan’s claims that no board member has asked him to resign.
Earlier Tuesday, former BCCI president Inderjit Singh Bindra had also called for Srinivasan’s resignation.
The BCCI has set up a three-member panel including BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale to probe Meiyappan’s role and if Indian Cements and Jaipur IPL Pvt Ltd, owners of Rajasthan Royals, had a role in spot fixing.
The other two members of the panel are T. Jayaram Chouta, former judge of the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu High Courts, and R. Balasubramanian, former judge of the Tamil Nadu High Court.
File Photo : AFP
