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N. Srinivasan may lose right to represent BCCI at ICC; Court set to equip Mudgal with more investigative powers
The Supreme Court on Tuesday is expected to formally hand over the investigation of the 2013 Indian Premier League betting and spot-fixing case to former judge Justice Mukul Mudgal. Last week, the Supreme Court had scrapped a Board of Control for Cricket in India panel that included former Test cricketer Ravi Shastri and CBI director R.K. Raghavan. There were questions of conflict of interest in the proposed BCCI panel.
Justice Mudgal, whose three-member committee investigated the IPL scam for four months after being appointed by Supreme Court in October last year, submitted a report on February 10. He is now expected to focus his investigation on 13 names that figure in a sealed envelope in court's possession.
One of the 13 names is that of suspended BCCI president, N. Srinivasan, whose son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan has been indicted for betting and leaking team information. According to the Mudgal panel, Meiyappan was a Chennai Super Kings team official.
Justice Mudgal will also list down the external agencies whose help he would need to probe the scam further. Mumbai Police could be one them. The size of the panel will also be known on Tuesday. Senior advocate Nilay Dutta and Additional Solicitor General L. Nageswara Rao were on Mudgal's committee last time.
Already ousted from the Board, Srinivasan may be stopped from representing the BCCI at ICC. The petitioner, Cricket Association of Bihar, is set to appeal against Srinivasan, who attended an ICC Board meeting in Dubai on April 9 and 10. Saying that it was "an internal matter", the Supreme Court has so far been unclear on Srinivasan attending ICC meetings on behalf of BCCI.
Aditya Verma, the CAB secretary whose petition started it all in June last year, is confident that Supreme Court will now give an order stopping Srinivasan from attending ICC meetings. "If you have been barred from the BCCI, how can you go to the ICC? The BCCI is a member body of the ICC, and you are representing BCCI only, aren't you?" Verma said, indicating that if need be, he will take ICC to court in Dubai, where it is based.
The focus will again be on Srinivasan. Despite an appeal, the Supreme Court has said Srinivasan can't return as BCCI boss till investigations are complete. Srinivasan is set to take over as ICC chairman in July. Tuesday's court decision could change a lot of equations in world cricket.
