BCCI hauled up by Supreme Court
The Indian Supreme Court has taken the BCCI to task for a possible instance of conflicting interests regarding Board secretary N Srinivasan and his Indian Premier League franchise Chennai Super Kings. At the time of bidding for the franchise back in 2007-08,
Srinivasan held the post of treasurer of the Board and its constitution was amended to allow him to make a successful bid for the Chennai team as owner of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-Cements-c795.
Before the amendment, clause 6.2.4 of the Regulations for Players, Team officials, Umpires and Administrators, read: ‘No administrator shall have, directly or indirectly, any commercial interest in the matches and events conducted by the board.’
Earlier, the amendment had not included the latest format of the game, but it reads as follows now: ‘No administrator shall have directly or indirectly any commercial interest in any of the events of the BCCI, excluding IPL, Champions League and Twenty20.’
The Supreme Court bench questioned the Board representative as to how they could allow this ambiguity and create an opportunity for questions to be asked of them at a later stage. They also suggested that Srinivasan should have made a choice between these conflicting
interests and since he was not able to do so, the Board should have done so instead of amending their constitution and allowing the matter to proceed. However the court has till present maintained these utterances as observations and not a judgment.
The matter was first brought up by former Board president AC Muthiah who had filed a petition with the Chennai High Court in April earlier this year. He came to the highest apex body after his petition was not entertained citing ‘no merit to interfere’. The
BCCI representatives also made the case that Muttiah has no authority in challenging the Board amendment, to which the Supreme Court bench replied that the cricket body had an obligation to look into any complaints made against its constitution and any other
processes.
It marks a bad couple of weeks for N Srinivasan and his Chennai Super Kings ownership as they were earlier embroiled in an e-mail controversy alleging that the auction and successful bidding of former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff had been fixed in party
with suspended IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and hence illegal. The team however continues to do well on the cricket field, in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, whilst participating in the Champions League T20.
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