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28 March 2024

Gavaskar to head IPL, Indian court orders Srinivasan to step down

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar gestures during a cricket match between teams featuring expatriate cricket players from India and Pakistan at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium March 25, 2008. (REUTERS)

Published
By Agencies

Batting great Sunil Gavaskar was installed as interim head of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday after India's top court temporarily relieved N. Srinivasan of his duties as the country's cricket board president.

Srinivasan's position was deemed untenable in the wake of his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan being indicted for illegal betting on last year's lucrative Twenty20 tournament with the court calling on the powerful cricket administrator to step aside to ensure a fair investigation into the scandal.

Former India cricketer and board vice-president Shivlal Yadav would oversee all other non-IPL affairs at the BCCI until any further order, the Supreme Court added.

The court also decided to allow the seventh edition of the IPL to continue with all eight teams, including the two sides linked to the corruption scandal.

The United Arab Emirates will host the first leg of the Twenty20 league from April 16-30 as this year's tournament clashes with parliamentary elections in the world's biggest democracy.

Voting in India will be held in nine stages to May 12 and results are due to be announced on May 16. With poll security being the Indian government's priority, UAE would host at least 16 IPL matches, the BCCI said earlier this month.

The board has approached the interior ministry for permission to host the May 1-12 matches in states where polling would be over, but has kept Bangladesh as a standby venue in case the government cannot provide security.

Local media claimed Meiyappan was chief executive of the Chennai Super Kings but the company that owns the IPL franchise, India Cements, said he was merely a member of team management.

Srinivasan, set to take over as chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) board in July, is the head of India Cements.

The scandal surfaced when former Test bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and two other local cricketers, all playing for the Rajasthan Royals franchise, were arrested on suspicion of taking money to concede a fixed number of runs.

Sreesanth, who had denied any wrongdoing, was subsequently banned for life by the BCCI.

The Supreme Court has set April 16 as the next date for hearing in the case.

Earlier:
 India's Supreme Court has ordered the country's cricket boss Narayanaswami Srinivasan to step aside amid a corruption probe.

The court on Friday said test great Sunil Gavaskar should be made Srinivasan's temporary replacement as head of the Board of Control for Cricket in India until the completion of an investigation into corruption in the domestic Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition.

Srinivasan is also chairman-designate of the International Cricket Council.

IPL 7 to go ahead and CSK, RR allowed to participate in the latest edition, according to an AP report.

EARLIER: Gavaskar says willing to step in as BCCI head   

Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar said he was willing to step in as president of the Indian cricket board Thursday after the Supreme Court recommended he take over from embattled incumbent N. Srinivasan.

"There is nothing that you can do if the Supreme Court - the highest court - asks you to do something, that's it," the retired opening batsman, who is now a television commentator, told the NDTV network .

"The fact that I am contracted to the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) to do TV commentary has to be put on record. After that if the honourable Supreme Court tells you to do something, then of course ... if they ask me to do something, I will do it.

"As an opening batsman, you must be ready for all kinds of challenges. I will do everything to the best of my abilities. If the highest court is reposing this faith in me, I'll be very happy to do what they ask me to do."

Gavaskar's comments came after judges proposed he take over on an interim basis as president of the BCCI from Srinivasan who has so far defied their calls to stand down during a probe into illegal betting.

While part of the investigation revolves around Srinivasan's son-in-law, the 64-year-old Gavaskar said the BCCI president must be regarded as "innocent till proven guilty".

"I cannot pass an opinion on what Supreme Court feels as I am not a legal man," he added.