Srinivasan must quit; BCCI must clean its act
Mr N Srinivasan can obstinately continue to hold on to his dream of returning as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, but this dream has become untenable in the wake of scathing remarks the Supreme Court has made on the functioning of the Indian Premier league in general and the conflict of interest in which he is involved, in particular. The apex court may not have yet asked him to abdicate the presidentship, but it has made enough observations that point in that direction — and one does not have to read between the lines to understand that. It is for Mr Srinivasan to read the writing on the wall and take the ethical and moral step. It will do his image and that of the game of cricket a great deal of good if he abandons his pursuit of regaining the BCCI president's position. There is too much muck sticking on him and far too many controversies surrounding his conduct. His supporters within the BCCI and outside too must understand that they are defending the indefensible and, in the process, harming their own credentials. The ‘clean chit' propaganda that Mr Srinivasan's camp has been spreading, following the Mudgal panel report, has been blown to pieces. The Supreme Court has observed that matters do not stop with the Mudgal report. In any case, as the court said, the so-called clean chit is a mere assumption. This is absolutely true. It must be remembered that the Mudgal panel had categorically stated that Mr Srinivasan was in the know of at least one instance of wrongdoing but did not act on it. This in itself was damning enough. The fact that the panel did not hold Mr Srinivasan guilty of spot-fixing or betting in the IPl matches does not mean he is clean otherwise. That the court was not comfortable with Mr Srinivasan's stated desire to return to the helm, is clear from its words, “The question is whether you should at all be present in the BCCI.” The apex court also punctured the Srinivasan camp's claim that he was distant from the wrongdoings that have been uncovered. It observed that his involvement as the owner of a team whose officials have been involved in betting, would affect his standing as an official of the BCCI. “If you are allowing these things to happen, you are killing the game”, the court said.
Going by Mr Srinivasan's persistence in the face of the many strictures, it appears evident that he is less concerned about the image of the game and more focussed on his cherished aim of returning as BCCI chief. It is widely believed that no proper investigation can happen in the murky dealings which have been unearthed, with him around. We saw the sham that an internal inquiry committee had perpetrated when the allegations first broke out in the public domain. The panel had given a clean chit to all; and while Mr Srinivasan claimed that he had kept away from the probe, the general impression was that there was no way a fair investigation could have been held while he was around. The formation of the Mudgal panel was in response to that farcical probe. Even if we keep all other issues aside, the one arising out of conflict of interest, where Mr Srinivasan was BCCI chief and also owner of an IPl team which now stands tainted, cannot be brushed aside.